Glad I met you
by MuffinGirlBethan
Summary: Modern AU. Zoro Roronoa found his life to be relatively normal but thanks to a car accident and the intervention of a mysterious blonde man, his life develops into something far from normal. NON-Yaoi, but plenty of Zosan just minus the romance.
1. Chapter 1

This is my very first fanfic and I am sooooo excited ^^. This is gonna be a multi-chap fic and don't be put off but the fact that there isn't romance. There's all the goodness of Zosan fluff and I guess if you squint it could be considered shonen-ai. Please, please, please review this story, I would love to everyone's opinion and I am totally fine with critique as I hope to improve my writing skill a lot. Enjoy!

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"I'm sorry but the person you have called is not available" Dammit, that old man was supposed to be using the phone he gave him. He slammed the payphone down and took a quick glance to his right. A black 4x4 was parked on the other side of the busy street, watching and waiting. The windows were tinted black but he knew exactly who was in the car, he knew exactly who was watching his every move.

They were waiting for him to flinch, to show some sign that he was about to make a run for it. Of course he was going to run, as far as he could hopefully, but he had to pretend he hadn't seen them yet. He casually took out some spare change and pretended to count the precious coins he had left. How in the hell did they get here so fast?

This Spandam bastard truly was a clever idiot. Clever in the sense that he knew exactly how to ruin someone's life without breaking the law and he was an idiot because evidently, that purple haired freak was still chasing said person. He took one deep breath while gently pushing the coins back into his front jeans pocket and without hesitation or any more glances, turned left to sprint down the heavily crowded pavement.

He didn't have a damn clue where he was headed, it didn't even matter. The more distance between him and that vehicle, the better. Large crowds are certainly ideal for losing your predators, but on rare occasions there would be an agent camouflaged in the herd of businessmen and shoppers, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

All he had to do was just get out of there, just run, run, run, don't stop running until his gut instincts told him that he was safe and was no longer being chased. His pace slowed down when he spotted an especially large crowd walking toward him and he squeezed though a gap within the human barricade. Men and women gave him odd looks and some of them were smart enough to veer out of the way as he ran past them like an escaped convict.

An approaching alleyway was the key to his escape, as long as he kept cutting through the city there was no way they would be able to catch up with him. The morning sun shone brightly in his eye and sweat beads began to form on his forehead, although that was mainly caused by the woolly hat that he wore to cover his hair. What a perfect start to the day, he thought.

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The Sunny Go apartment complex stood in the very heart of the cosmopolitan city of Grandline and housed some of the most unique tenants in the whole of the city. On the first floor there was an array of skilled carpenters who had built the apartment themselves and were usually employed in the most lavish part of Grandline, Water 7. The rest of the floors housed other colourful people like Dr Kureha, who had the body of an 80 year old woman and the attitude of a teenager, Jango the hypnotist who had an uncanny likeness to Michael Jackson, a ballet dancing okama who went by the peculiar name of Mr 2, and many many more. However on the 12th floor of the apartment complex contained the most colourful, noisy and insane group of people that occupied the whole building. The other tenants named them the straw hat crew seeing as the "captain" of the group was never seen without wearing his iconic straw hat.

Zoro Roronoa was a member of this wacky group and was currently staring blankly at the ceiling of his master bedroom after being rudely awoken by his alarm clock. Zoro didn't want to get out of his bed today, he really didn't. Any other day he would be in the shower by now but today he had to go to a damn pointless interview. Well, it wasn't really pointless seeing as he would be earning much more than he was now if he was hired but he didn't really want to go through all the trouble. He had to wear an uncomfortably tight suit that restricted his movements, sit in front of rich snobby interviewers while they judged his every word and movement. Normally Zoro didn't give a damn about what people thought about him but this time he had to care, because if he didn't they would just turn him down. The job itself sounded pointless. He had to teach self-defence classes and the students were no doubt snobby rich kids with Harvard university degrees and fancy haircuts. He'd probably get sued if one of them got so much as a paper cut and if that wasn't enough he had teach in a pristine white walled gym in a fancy office building. What the hell happened to good old fashioned dojos? But Zoro just had to face up to the facts. He needed money for the amount of travelling he did and an especially large amount to pay for information, not to mention that the bills needed paying _and_ he needed to pay back the she-devil, Nami, after regretfully asking to borrow some money. He called her a friend but Zoro was a firm believer that she would gladly kill him in his sleep if it meant money was involved.

And so after a defeated sigh, Zoro heaved himself out of his warm bed and proceeded to take a shower. The water that hit his face awakened his senses and he found himself to be in a slightly better mood after he stepped out of the shower. Zoro grabbed a towel to roughly dry his obscure green hair and wrapped it round his lower half and advanced into the kitchen, all the while dripping water all over the floorboards. His apartment was designed so that the kitchen was a part of the living room and featured a fridge, cooker, sink, microwave and cupboards. It was kept relatively clean except the fridge was never full and he had to sometimes rely on his other female friend, Robin Nico, to buy his groceries. She didn't mind however, although recently she hadn't been in the generous mood and had ceased to call round every Wednesday to pick up his shopping list.

Zoro shrugged to himself as he spotted a full carton of milk in the refrigerator and made himself a bowl of cereal. He wasn't exactly a culinary expert but he got on alright and he knew fully the importance of food when it came to maintaining his strong physique. Zoro recalled Luffy mentioning the other night about how awesome it would be if they could find someone who could cook some good food to add to their gang. That way they could have parties every night and not have to worry about paying for a takeaway. The tenants of the Sunny Go apartments were no stranger to the extravagant parties that the straw-hat crew would host and they would occasionally join in the fun. This was only achievable by the design of the complex as there was a massive square shaped shaft going through the middle. It was bordered off by a small balcony and so if you looked over the edge you could see all the way down to reception and because the floors were so close together it was easy to have a conversation with your neighbours who lived two floors down.

Zoro paused his thoughts when he noticed a small sticky note on the end of the counter and read the words "Interview time changed from 11.30 to 09:30" and then looked up at the nearest clock that read 09:15. A spoonful of cereal slipped comically into the bowl as he looked disbelievingly at the words. Zoro blinked a couple of times and resorted to rubbing his eyes in hopes that when he looked at the note again the words would've miraculously rearranged themselves to say something else, but they didn't. Oh…shit. Zoro practically leapt across his apartment and ran into the bedroom, wrenched the wardrobe door open so fiercely it almost broke in half and set to work on removing his sweats and squeezing himself in the suit. How in hell had this happened?

He had set his alarm for 09:00 yesterday morning; he wanted to make sure that he had plenty of time to prepare and not rush like he was doing now. But Zoro also remembered finding a message left for him on the answering machine after he had come home from work. He had written it down of course but then Luffy, Usopp and Chopper came over to his apartment to remind him that it was game night. What had started as a four player Timesplitters tournament transformed into a night of drinking with the arrival of Ace , Brook and Nami. Although it was extremely hard for Zoro to get drunk, time flies when you're having fun and as soon as he found out that the time was one thirty in the morning he found it best to politely tell his guests to "GET THE FUCK OUT" and dragged himself into bed.

Zoro regretted every minute, every second he had spent emptying beer bottles and watching Nami win every single game of poker, instead of getting an early night's sleep so that he could arrive at the interview on time and well presented. He was halfway through looping his tie when Zoro glanced over to the white sword that was on a stand in front of the window sill. _Kuina…forgive me. _The sword looked displeasingly back at him but there was no hatred in its gaze, just disappointment.

Zoro quickly looked into the mirror to take in his appearance for the first time since he woke up. He flattened down the tufts of green hair that were poking out in all directions and straightened his miserable looking tie. He then realised that he still had his three golden earrings on, so he took them off and placed them in his jacket pocket. Satisfied, he dropped to the floor and hurriedly searched under the bed for the briefcase he had scavenged off of Galdino. He was a peculiar man who had an obsession with creating wax art figures and lived on the third floor in the third apartment, weird but friendly and kind enough to lend Zoro a used briefcase. There was nothing of importance in the briefcase, Zoro just assumed that it would look professional and create a good first impression.

As soon as he found the handle of said briefcase he grabbed it, hauled it out from under the bed and flung himself toward the front door. He scrambled for his keys in the small white bowl he kept on a coffee table right next to the door and grabbed his wallet that was also kept there, shoving it in his back trouser pocket. Zoro flung the door open and slammed it shut as soon as he stepped out of the apartment, turning to fiddle with his keys, only to be rugby tackled to the floor by a small teenager who had the strength of about 10 fully grown men.

"Arrgh goddammit Luffy! What the hell are you doing!" Zoro shouted down at the young boy who had wrapped himself around Zoro's midsection. Luffy looked up at Zoro's frowning face with gleaming eyes and a toothy grin.

"Ne, ne did you hear? Timesplitters 4 has just come out and Usopp preordered it! We're gonna go get it now, you wanna come?" Zoro managed to pry Luffy's hands and feet away and stood up to lock up his apartment. "Sorry Luffy," he said while shoving the keys back in his pocket "but I'm late for something, something really important that I can't afford to miss!" There was no way Zoro was going to tell his childish friend that he was going to an interview; he'd never hear the end of it.

"Eeeeeeeh? No way! Zoro don't be stingy!" Luffy shouted after Zoro, who had already started sprinting around the balcony and toward the elevators that were allocated at the opposite side of the building. "Eh? Where's Zoro going to in such a hurry?" Zoro pressed the elevator button repeatedly while he looked over his shoulder to see another one of his friends locking his own apartment. "Usopp! Zoro's being stingy! He says he has to go somewhere, tell him he can't go!" whined Luffy, as he sat on the floor, pouting. Usopp, a young art student with an abnormally long nose, shifted a blank canvas under his arm and looked over to his green haired friend and took in his suit and frantic movements. "Luffy, there's nothing we can do if he has somewhere to go. Besides", he lifted his chin high and grinned, "it must be something pretty important if he has to miss watching the Great Usopp defeat his opponents in the new-"

"Usopp you dork"

"NAANIII!" Usopp shrieked when Zoro interrupted his profound speech. The elevator doors finally opened and he dived in and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the elevator doors slowly started to close he responded "All I can say is that if all goes well, I'll be one step closer to achieving my goal". Once the elevator doors closed the last thing Luffy and Usopp saw was a rare cocky grin being worn by the swordsman. Usopp raised his eyebrows and looked over to Luffy who was strangely silent but he was wearing a confident grin.

The elevator journey took merely seconds, thank god, but it was getting to the damn building that was the problem. He could try walking there but he knew that wasn't going to happen when all he knew was the name of the place and his poor directional sense would be of no help either, even though he'd never admit it out loud. When the doors of the elevator opened he sprinted to the glass entrance doors, ignoring the "Good morning" that came from the receptionist, Camie.

When Zoro stepped outside, his eyes darted everywhere to find a taxi within the mass amount of cars that were waiting for the lights to change. Of course it had to be rush hour and of course all the taxi's he could see had to be occupied. Thankfully Zoro spotted an empty one parked next to a hotel on the corner of the street opposite him. Zoro jogged across the street but as soon as he reached the pavement he stopped dead in his tracks and the world seemed to stop as well.

He had heard a voice call out from behind him, it had called out his name. It was a female voice, a young female voice and it sounded sad and even…pitiful? All the blood drained from Zoro's face and he swallowed hard. It couldn't be? He was sure it had sounded like her. He turned his head to look behind him ever so slowly and his eyes widened at what he saw.

It was Kuina, it was undoubtedly her. She was standing still in the middle of the road, her eyes possessing the essence of death and her smile was sweet but unsettling. Was his mind playing tricks on him? She was dead, he was sure of it; he had seen the body himself. Zoro was eased slightly when he noticed that she looked as though she hadn't aged a day, even though she had died 7 years ago. So…what? Was she a ghost? No, Zoro didn't believe in ghosts. Perhaps he was still sleeping and this was a dream? Zoro ceased his questions when he watched Kuina lift up her hand, gesturing for Zoro to hold it.

Zoro didn't think upon it, he automatically moved toward the middle of the road where Kuina was standing and lifted up his hand. His mind was mostly blank now, all he was focused on was Kuina's hand however for a second he heard someone shout "OI, LOOK OUT!" but it wasn't enough to sway him. He was just mere millimetres away from touching her skin when she faded away and Zoro was left pawing at the air.

A very, very loud noise brought him back to reality and he turned his head toward it and realised what the noise belonged to was approaching him fast. Shit! Zoro squeezed his eyes shut upon seeing the front of the huge lorry and waited for the inevitable force to collide with him. And something did collide with him but it wasn't the same force a massive lorry would have caused.

It was light and it hit him from the side hard enough to lift him of his feet. He kept his eyes closed again as he waited for hard tarmac to smack him in the face but he landed on something far less hard and painful and after a few rolls along the ground Zoro finally came to a stop, with his back to the floor.

He spent a few seconds waiting for the dizziness to fade from his eyes. He found it a little more strenuous to breathe and then realised that whatever soft thing he had landed on before was now sprawled across his front. The ringing in Zoro's ears faded and was replaced with the sound of someone's heavy breathing next to his left ear. Finally it was time to open his eyes and as soon as he did all he saw was yellow.

It wasn't the sun, although Zoro could have sworn this yellow shared the same brightness. No, it was a person's hair; it belonged to the same person who had probably just saved his life. The stranger's head was hung over his shoulder and Zoro raised his arms to shake the other's shoulders. "Oi…oi you okay?" he asked with slight worry etched into his voice when the body didn't stir. However just when Zoro was about to raise his voice the yellow head moved slightly and Zoro heard a choked growling noise next to his left ear.

The stranger then raised their upper body with lightning speed in order to stare down angrily at Zoro from above and grasped handfuls of his white shirt. He could finally get a look at his supposed saviour and they turned out to be a young man, 19 no 20? He certainly looked the same age as Zoro and his hair was styled so that his left eye was completely covered by blonde locks, and blood was dripping down from a fresh cut on the top of his head, so that his right eye was mainly covered in the red substance.

But the most important thing that Zoro managed to notice was the utter fury that was written across the guy's face. His eyes were burning with pure ferocity, his white teeth were clenched with rage, and his fists shook with anger. When Zoro opened his mouth to say something the blonde stopped him by screeching in his face.

"YOU STUPID FUCK! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT!" Zoro blinked slowly, perplexed by the blonde's words.

"You do realise you're not supposed to stand in the middle of the fucking road when there's a massive lorry coming straight towards you! You shitty, dumb, asshole! What's wrong with you, huh?" All Zoro could do was just stare dumbly at the angry blonde and as he took in each word that was spat, his own anger began to boil inside.

The blonde suddenly wiped off his scowl once he came to realise that a crowd of onlookers had gathered around them, and he looked down to stare in utter disgust when he also realised that he was sitting on top of a fully grown male, with his knees spread on either side of said male's midsection. The blonde scrambled a few feet away but still remained on the ground with his long legs bent, and glared at Zoro who was pulling himself up into a sitting position. Zoro returned the glare.

"I didn't ask you to save me, asshole," Zoro stated while narrowing his eyes.

"Heh. That's a nice way of thanking someone for saving their damn life"

"Shaddup! I didn't need your help"

"Hah. You must have hit your head harder than I thought or you were already this stupid to begin with. Are you seriously trying to tell me that…that..," the blonde trailed off as he started to pat his hair as though something was missing. He turned his head frantically from side to side and stopped when he found a woolly hat on the floor and he immediately snatched it up and stretched it over his head so that most of his golden locks were covered.

Zoro looked down at himself for a quick second and miraculously found that his suit wasn't as crumpled as he thought it would have been, and his shirt hadn't been ruined by any stains. Zoro grabbed the handle of the briefcase that had landed close to him, and he also picked up his brown wallet that lay on the ground between the blonde and him.

The sound of sirens approaching made Zoro scowl and he looked back at the blonde who was now wearing a peculiar look. It was a mix between fear and uncertainty and his head had turned to face the direction of the sirens. The blonde stood up but quickly bent down again to pick something else up from the ground and stuffed it into his jean pocket. "Che, I shouldn't stay here," the blonde murmured to himself while he wiped the blood off his forehead with his sleeve. He turned away but before he ran off, he looked back to Zoro who was still sitting on the ground.

"Hey moss-head, try not to get yourself killed in the future while crossing the road. Next time I might not be there to save your ass!" The blonde ran off and swerved through the maze of cars that had all stopped because of the accident until he was out of Zoro's sight.

Zoro looked at his wristwatch and saw that the face had smashed but the hands were still ticking.9:23…shit. He felt someone's hands on him and realised that he was slowly being lifted up so that he was standing.

"Hey are you okay? That was a quite fall" Zoro looked next to him to see an elderly man, he must have been the one who had helped him.

"Yeah I'm okay, I dunno about the other guy though" Zoro looked in the direction where the pissy blonde had run off to. Zoro wasn't considerably worried about the other guy seeing as the cocky shit sounded like he could handle himself, but that cut wasn't exactly small.

"Well, don't worry, the ambulance has just arrived to take a look at you" Zoro looked back at the old man and asked as politely as he could "Sorry, old man, but can you tell me where the Saboady Building is?" The elderly man looked at him with confusion for a few seconds but smiled politely.

"Yes of course, just go down this street and take a left and you can't miss it, it's the tallest building in this area" Zoro cursed inwardly at his terrible geography skills, "thanks old man".

Zoro ran through the crowd of onlookers and headed down the street that the old guy pointed to. He heard numerous shouts behind him, telling him to come back and that he might be injured. Zoro ignored them, sure it was a heavy fall but that strange blonde guy had cushioned the blow. Besides Zoro had received injuries far more severe than simple cuts and bruises. He broke into a fast sprint and was making good progress down the sidewalk. No damn car accident was going to keep him from getting to this interview, hell if a meteor happened to crash into earth it still wouldn't be enough to stop him from getting to this damn interview.

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Zoro sat slumped over the diner table with his head in his hand and looked down at his empty plates. He was currently sat in the Spice Bean diner which he came to eat lunch in almost every single day. Zoro was also currently brooding over the day's events and how it had turned from crap to absolute shit in a matter of hours.

When he had arrived at the interview his appearance was what let him down first. Although his suit was in normal condition, his tie was a skew, his shoelaces had come undone and he was panting and breathing like a mad man. Zoro also thought that he had made it in time, but one of the interviewers helpfully pointed out that he was two minutes late, which was in their opinion "disgraceful".

Three hours Zoro had to sit in a chair, while being asked a number of questions he either didn't know the answer to or couldn't answer properly. Every time one of the interviewers raised one of their bushy eyebrows or turned to look at another interviewer with a questioning look, Zoro cursed inwardly and knew it was a bad sign. The final straw was when one of the interviewers asked him what it would mean to him if he got this job. When he replied "It would mean a hell of a lot, seeing as it will bring me one step closer to achieving my goal, which is to become the world's greatest swordsman" he received the most questioning of looks and was told he would be contacted again soon, and was then asked to leave.

Zoro let out a frustrated sigh, drank the last of his ice cold ginger beer and sat back to slouch in his chair. He didn't think there was anything wrong with simply stating the truth because that's exactly what he did. To any normal, simple person his goal probably sounded ridiculous but Zoro wasn't a normal person, and every day he pushes himself so that he is one step closer to reaching his goal. Zoro's mind flickered back to the event that had happened this morning at the mention of his dream. Because it wasn't just his dream, it was her dream as well…Kuina's dream.

Zoro was slightly disturbed by the fact that she had appeared like a ghost in the middle of the road like that, but he couldn't deny not feeling happy when he saw her again. It had been 7 years since her death and there wasn't a day that passed when he didn't think about her and the promise they had made to each other. But she…she didn't look happy to see him. She looked sad and disappointed and when she called out his name and her voice sounded as though she pitied him.

Wait, did she know that the interview was going to go terribly? Did she know he would let himself down? ...Did she know that he was failing to fulfil his promise? Zoro's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the clinking of plates and looked down to see that his table had been cleared and was left with a bill.

Zoro looked up to see someone he didn't recognize, a new guy perhaps? Zoro was a regular customer at the diner and so memorized all of the faces that worked there. This new waiter was certainly older than all of the employees; in fact he must have been older than the owner. He was plump, there was a slight limp in his step and he was also sporting a ridiculously long braided moustache. When Zoro squinted to look at the man's name tag it read the word "Zeff". Zeff huh?

Zoro looked down to see his bill of 21 berri. Shit, he had splashed out more than he usually did, but seeing as he never got to finish his breakfast and the interview lasted roughly 3 hours, he was entitled to eat as much as he damn well liked.

But there was a problem, Zoro discovered; when he found that his wallet was empty. It was completely devoid of anything, no credit cards, no notes, not even any small change. Shit! Had he been robbed?! This day only got worse and worse. But Zoro thought twice when he took in the wallet's appearance. It certainly looked like his own wallet from a far, but on closer inspection the stitching looked different and the leather was a slightly lighter shade of brown.

So he had picked up someone else's wallet? Who's? Zoro racked his brain to think of a time when he could have replaced it. He recalled what had happened this morning, the car accident and that strange blonde. Zoro did remember seeing the guy put something in his back pocket, he must have picked it up thinking it was his, just like Zoro did. Damn, they must have fallen out and gotten mixed up during the collision.

Zoro let out a very heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Fuck, what was he going to do? He could tell the owner he would pay him back, he had been there plenty of times and the owner must have known him enough to trust him. But that left the problem of actually getting the wallet back; he could go to the police station and ask if a wallet had been handed in. Assuming that the blonde was a half-decent guy, which seemed likely seeing as he was willing to save a complete stranger's life. Well he says "life" but Zoro would be ashamed to call himself a swordsman if a mere lorry had killed him.

He supposed he was grateful to the man for saving him going to a hospital and being pestered by annoying doctors. However seeing as this man's wallet was pretty much empty; Zoro then assumed that the blonde would have probably leapt with joy, when he would have found his presumably empty wallet was filled with notes and credit cards.

Zoro grimaced and tried looking through the wallet again to see if there was anything like an address or phone number. He didn't find any of these but he did find a piece of thin paper which had been folded several times and when he opened it he noticed it was half covered by dried blood.

The piece of paper had messy handwriting on it which read "Stay safe, stay hidden, don't get caught but most of all, don't get killed." Zoro blinked slowly and read over the words again a few more times. What the hell did that mean? Zoro stopped himself from asking questions when he realised the note wasn't any of his business, and that he was a man who respected someone's privacy. He quickly stuffed the note back in its place and shoved the wallet into his jacket pocket.

"Umm excuse me!" he called over to the new waiter, Zeff, who looked up at him lazily and waddled over to his table, folded his arms and looked down at him over his moustache.

"Whaddya want, kid?"

Kid? "Urr I don't really know how to say this but I err, seem to have lost my wallet and I don't really have any money on me at the moment. I know the owner, I 'm a regular and I'm sure he'll understand." Zoro scratched the back of his head awkwardly and Zeff looked at him with an unimpressed look.

"Look I promise I'll pay him back, I should have the money by tomorrow" Zoro waited for Zeff to burst out in anger, and accuse him of being stupid enough to think that he could eat without paying. Zeff sighed deeply.

"That's okay kid. I'll let him know." Zeff noticed Zoro's bewildered look and chuckled to himself. He then picked up the bill and walked away. That was strange, Zoro thought. That guy had practically just let him eat for free. Maybe his day wasn't going to end up being shit after all.

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When Zoro stepped outside a draft of cold winter air hit him hard and he shivered. He also felt small droplets of water hit his skin and he looked up to see that the sky had turned a murky grey colour. Zoro scowled but he wasn't put off by the gloomy weather and he began to walk in the direction of home.

This was his daily routine, to go to work in the morning, have lunch at the Spice Bean and walk home and because he had gotten used to this routine, walking to and from these places was no longer difficult. He could probably walk from the diner to his apartment with his eyes closed. Zoro had walked just only 10 yards when a familiar deep voice called out from behind him. Zoro's brows knitted into a frown as soon as he heard the annoying voice.

"Oi brat" Zoro looked to the side to see a car pulling up beside him with the window rolled down. In the passenger seat sat a 30 odd yr old man with white hair and spoke to Zoro in a gruff voice. This man's name was Smoker White and he was a good friend of Zoro's father, and so Zoro came to call him his uncle. The reason his voice annoyed Zoro was because whenever he heard it, it was either a voice that teased him or lectured him. Damn old guy should mind his own business.

"What the hell do you want, you old fart," Zoro said as he approached the car and bent over slightly to look at Smoker's stern face.

"Heh, that's a nice way to address your uncle. And here I was thinking of offering you a lift"

Zoro was about to tell him that he wasn't his uncle, when he thought about his offer. A lift did sound nice. Without any words of complaint, Zoro silently made his way over to the other side of the car and slowly opened the car door, dropped into the front passenger seat and slammed the door shut. Smoker drove away slowly and glanced to the side to take in Zoro's peculiar appearance.

"So, what's up with the suit?" Smoker asked gruffly, his voice not truly expressing the amount of curiosity that was starting to increase when he noticed the briefcase. Zoro had turned to look out of the window in an attempt to avoid talking to Smoker, and he growled when it turned out to be useless.

"Shut up, old fart" Zoro spoke into his clenched hand and instead chose to look at the Christmas lights that were starting to be lit in the shop windows. But after a few minutes of silence, Zoro caved in and huffed loudly.

"I went to a job interview" He waited for the teasing to begin.

"A job interview? Hm yeah I thought it was something like that. Ace did mention something about you trying to find a job. But what the hell do _you _need a new job for, you've got a perfectly fine one right now" Damn, the old geezer sure liked to lecture. And Zoro should've known better to keep his mouth shut when he was around Ace.

"Leave me alone, Smoker, it's my life, I can do whatever the hell I want"

"It's that cocky attitude that's gonna let you down in life, you ungrateful brat" Zoro half listened to Smoker's words when he felt the car coming to a stop. He wasted no time in getting out of the car, while mumbling a barely audible "thanks". Zoro took care in slamming the door with extra force and walked fast toward the glass doors of the Sunny Go apartment. When Smoker called out to him again, Zoro stopped but didn't bother looking back.

"Kid, I hope you know what you're doing with your life" Zoro ignored the "helpful" tip his uncle had offered and settled for answering his question with a middle finger. When he opened the glass doors, a new temperature hit him, but this time it was warm and welcoming. Zoro spotted Camie chatting like a maniac to her brother Hachi, the janitor, and sighed in relief. He didn't fancy talking to the happy go lucky girl; in fact he didn't really feel like talking with anyone. He just wanted to get back home, and crash onto the sofa.

Zoro hardly even noticed the elevator move as he stared into space. When the elevator doors opened he walked around the balcony. He shuffled through his pockets to find his keys, and only noticed that there was something waiting outside his apartment door when he rounded the last corner. As he walked closer he soon realised that it was a person, sitting with their back to the door and had long legs spread across the floor. The woolly hat had at some point fallen off to reveal the man's golden locks.

He was sleeping. He was waiting outside his apartment. He was sleeping outside _his _apartment.


	2. Chapter 2

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey. I am so so so so sorry for the long wait but I promise that the new chapters will be updated much much quicker than this one was. There are going to be many many more chapters to come so if I really put the work in I can maybe do a chapter a week (hopefully). Please do not hesitate to review this story, I would love love love to hear your opinion of the story and the characterization and I would love critical comments as well, anything to make the story more enjoyable. So anyway here's the chapter hopefully next chapter will be in Sanji's perspective so that should be fun, seeing as he's my favourite character and al : P Enjoy xxxx

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In…out. In and out. In and out again. That's all the man was doing, just sitting there, breathing in and out. Zoro could have been angry; he could have been clenching his teeth so hard that they would turn to dust, and digging his nails into his palms with so much force that they could pierce all the way down to the bone, but to his annoyance, he wasn't. In all truth, he had had an extremely shitty day and although Zoro wouldn't usually let things get to him, today everything had just added up until he found himself to be in a very unpleasant mood, at least, more than he usually was. And in all honesty, as soon as Zoro found one of the objects of his irritation (sleeping in front of _his_ apartment, preventing him from crashing onto _his_ sofa), punching the blonde right in the face seemed like the best solution. But Zoro had the right mind to consider why the blonde was even there. He had, in essence, stolen Zoro's wallet, so the only logical conclusion as to why he was probably waiting for Zoro to get back to his apartment, was to return the wallet to its rightful owner and retrieve his own. Zoro took notice of how incredibly peaceful and content the guy looked, considering the fact that he was sleeping in front of a stranger's apartment, in an unknown building.

Zoro noticed the blonde's scruffy trench coat. It was ripped in a few places and there were patches of different materials sewn on badly in an attempt to fix a few holes in the coat. His shoes too were ripped and scruffy, with bits of leather half hanging off and the soles were caked in dirt. But strangely the shoes themselves looked like were originally expensive and fancy, fancier than his own anyway, Zoro thought. Zoro's nose wrinkled slightly when he caught a whiff of the stench emanating from the blonde. There was no denying the smell, he smelt exactly like a garbage dumpster, what did he do, sleep in them? It sure as hell smelt like he did.

Zoro heard howls of laughter coming from Usopp's apartment and chuckled to himself slightly. Knowing that a certain young and much too curious boy usually spent more time in the halls than his own apartment, Zoro wouldn't have been surprised if the blonde had had a rude awakening in the form of a rugby tackle to the floor and an invitation to become a nakama.

Zoro scowled when he remembered the blonde's face being screwed up with such fury, and the insulting words he had spat at Zoro's face, a stark contrast as to how he looked now. Zoro was quick to notice a large cotton pad taped over the cut the guy had received this morning, looks like he _could_ look after himself after all. Or perhaps not, Zoro thought, when he looked at the blonde's abnormally grey/whitish skin tone, the extremely prominent dark blue under his eyes and his clumped together hair. Shit, was the guy sick? He'd better not throw up.

"Oh Zoro, there you are!" Zoro turned his head towards the squeaky call, and saw yet another one of his friends, running, almost skipping, towards him. The voice belonged to the youngest member of the strawhat gang, Tony Tony Chopper, a medical genius who used to live with a ridiculously old woman in the same building, but had managed to convince her to let him move into the apartment on the 12th floor. It was his kind nature and compassion toward sick people that attracted him to Luffy so much and made him an ideal member of the group. He now worked at the Grandline hospital as a fully trained doctor at the age of just 15.

"Yo Chopper" Zoro said tiredly. Chopper came to a halt in front of Zoro and looked up to the towering man with a gleaming grin.

"Ne ne d'you know him Zoro?" Zoro glanced at "him".

"Not really" Zoro interpreted Chopper's puzzled face as a cue to elaborate.

"Well," Zoro started the scratch the back of his head, "we sort of, err, bumped into each other this morning. We're pretty much just strangers; we don't even know each other's name". Chopper's big brown eyes examined his friend even more quizzically. Damn, he was probably thinking why the hell a stranger would know where his apartment was and would be waiting in front of it for him to come home.

"How long has he been there for?" Zoro asked.

"Mmmmmmm, about…3 hours" Chopper nodded. Zoro scrunched up his face. Seriously? The guy had waited 3 hours for him to get back?! No wonder he was snoozing away without a care in the world.

"Has he been sleeping all that time?"

Chopper looked at the blonde man and frowned. "Pretty much, yeah. I was just about to go to Luffy's when I found him here, sleeping just like he is now. I nudged him to wake him up, and , although he jumped away and tried to kick me, once he calmed down and got a grip, he was really, really nice." Chopper smiled to himself whilst still looking at the blonde. "It took a bit of persuading, but he let me look at a cut on his forehead, and even let me disinfect and bandage it." Chopper then displayed a pout that was a cross between annoyance and worry. Even Zoro had to admit it was kinda cute.

"What's up?"

Chopper fidgeted where he stood and looked at his hands. "Well I know it's none of my business, but when I looked him over I found signs showing that he was lethargic and extremely dehydrated. I did try offering him some food and a drink, but he refused both." Chopper looked down at his feet in shame which caused Zoro to chuckle slightly. He lifted his hand to ruffle the small boy's hair. Trust Chopper to be completely worried about a total stranger who had kicked him, being a doctor really did suit him.

"So, in other words "Can you look after him for me?"

Chopper's face looked up at Zoro with glee and he made a sort of happy squeaky noise. "Oh will you Zoro!? That would be so helpful y'know?" Chopper started to jump up and down on the spot, anticipating Zoro's answer. Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed loudly. So now he had to take care of a total stranger like some damn babysitter, who he knew first hand had one of the worst anger management issues Zoro had ever witnessed. But Zoro did his best to get rid of the creeping irritation that was starting to take over his mind and faked a smile in front of the innocent little doctor. He was no goddamn Samaritan but he would never say no if one of his friends asked for a favour.

"Yeah, yeah whatever" Zoro muttered. Chopper's eyes started to fill with tears but his smile grew even larger. "Thankyou so much Zoro!" Chopper cried out while wiping away his tears.

"Oiiiiiiiii! Chopper! We're waiting for you! Hurry up or Luffy will get impatient and start breaking things!" Usopp called from the open doorway of his apartment.

"Okay, I'm coming noooow!" Chopper shouted back. "Thanks again, Zoro. Oh and could you be extra nice to him. I think you two could be really great friends." Before Zoro could tell Chopper to stop being so cheeky and that he already had friends, the little tyke had already scampered off to Usopp's apartment. As soon as the door slammed shut, Zoro was met with utter silence, save for the soft breathing coming out of the blonde's nose.

"Oi". No response, not even a slight stir. Okay, now the blonde was practically _begging_ to be punched. Zoro chose to kick one of the blonde's dirty and worn shoes. The man took in a big deep breath through his nose and slowly started to open his eyes, blinking multiple times, and slowly lifted his head to look Zoro in the eye.

"You're in my way, move" The blonde rubbed the sleepiness away from his eyes and heaved himself up to a standing position begrudgingly. He bent down to snatch up his hat and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Strange, Zoro thought, he looked so desperate when he thought he had lost it this morning.

"Is that really how you should treat a guest, asshole?" With the man standing Zoro could see that he was the same height as him, and so neither of them could look down upon the other. Zoro moved swiftly past the blonde and unlocked his apartment door, opened it halfway, before turning back to the blonde with a raised eyebrow.

"Guest? That cut must have been worse than it looked 'cos you must be under the delusion that I would actually let you in. You must be here to collect your wallet, so give me back mine and I'll give you yours, and then we can just go our separate ways." The blonde looked at him with a bored and unimpressed expression, but after a few seconds a smirk began to tug at the corner of his mouth and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"You're one grumpy ass shit, aren't you? Here I was hoping to receive my thankyou after saving _your _life this morning. I might look like a piece of shit, but I sure as hell don't deserve to be treated like one". Man this guy was annoying, Zoro needed to get rid of him before his anger reached danger levels.

"Look if you think-"

"Ooooooh, this is a nice apartment you've got cabbage-head" The blonde said as he barged past Zoro and into the apartment, looking around the place like it was some kind of amusement park.

"OI! Don't just barge into someone else's apartment!" Zoro looked outside into the hallway to see if anyone saw the blonde go in but thankfully all was quiet and so he kicked the door shut. If anyone found out that some stranger had barged his apartment without his permission, he would never hear the end of it.

The blonde had already taken off his stinky coat and thrown it over the sofa, looking like he owned the place. It turned out the clothes under the coat weren't tatty or scruffy but was in fact a pretty fancy looking suit made up of black trousers, a black pinstripe suit, a black tie and a sea blue striped shirt. What the hell was with this guy? Zoro had never seen many homeless people wearing a suit, at least that's what Zoro assumed the blonde was.

"It's fine, I'm not doing anyone any harm cabbage-head" The blonde said as he started to rummage around in his kitchen cupboards for some reason with a smile plastered on his face that looked like it belonged to a 5yr old on Christmas morning.

"Yes you are, and who the hell are you calling cabbage-head?" Zoro strode over to him and folded his arms.

"Well I don't see anyone else who as cabbage for h-uwaaahh is this seriously Kalpasi? You can only get this from India!"

"My friend got it for me as a souvenir, but that's not the point-" The blonde clearly had no intention of listening, as he had grabbed a coffee jar, opened it and stuck his nose into it.

"Ooooh man I've forgotten how good coffee smells"

Zoro snatched back the jar but the blonde had other ideas and opened the fridge to inspect the contents.

"Woah, this is one desolate fridge. You ever heard of a grocery store cabbage-head? Oh wait, you probably couldn't even cross the road to get to one without getting run over. What were you even doing in the middle of the road anyway, acting like some slow-minded ape?"

That was it, no amount of meditation techniques could have prevented Zoro's patience from snapping right there and then.

"Listen you cocky little shit, this is _my_ home and you are _not_ welcome. Now, judging by your scrawny little legs, I'm guessing that if I attempted to throw you out myself I won't know how many of your bones I might _accidently_ break. Look I'm tired and I'm pissed off but I'm gonna give you one last chance to give me back my wallet and get the hell out or I'll call the police"

The blonde's head lifted a little at the last few words Zoro said, but when he turned around to look at him, his expression was calm and bored.

"Go ahead"

"Huh?"

"Besides", the blonde stood up from his kneeling position in front of the fridge, to stand squarely in front of Zoro, "you probably shouldn't underestimate the power of my "scrawny legs". I can wipe the floor with your ugly ass without even breaking a sweat." There it was again, that fire in the man's eyes that was burning as fiercely as when Zoro had met him that morning.

"Heh. If you knew what I was capable of, you'd be more careful with your choice of words. Arrogant people like you who are stupid enough to challenge me, usually end up on the floor begging for mercy." Zoro eyes were dark and deadly and his stare was enough to pierce all the way to the blonde's very soul. But the blonde was still being resilient and his eyes never wavered, nor did his expression and the fire in his eyes had neither grown nor died down. An unnatural grumbling noise caused both men's concentration to break and the blonde wrapped his arms around his belly in embarrassment and his face turned a slight shade of pink. Zoro raised his eyebrow and looked unimpressed but had to react fast when a small object was thrown at him.

"There here's your damn wallet, now give me back mine" Zoro unbuttoned the leather strap and opened the wallet to see if everything was accounted for. His credit cards were all there, the same as the way he'd left them. Although he couldn't say the same for his notes, Zoro realised, when he checked the back pouch.

"Sure, just as long as you give me back my 30 berris I seem to have 'lost'"

"Arrrrgh dammit. Look I don't have any money right now okay? I…used it to buy some food, I was starving."

"So you stole from me"

"I didn't steal anything, I just borrowed without permission"

"That's called stealing"

"Whatever, I deserve more than just a free meal for saving your goddamn life. I could have just stood back and watched you being crushed by a two tonne lorry. But no, I risked my own life to save yours and this is how you repay me?"

"I told you I didn't need your help. And besides I-" Zoro forgot whatever retort he had conjured when he realized something .

"Wait, I know why you're here. You've come to blackmail me through guilt so that you can have another goddamn free meal, haven't you?" The blonde's expression became that of slight shock but it changed into that of a scowl.

"What the he-"

"No I'm onto you, you son-of-a-bitch. Did you really think I'd be as dumb and gullible as to be guilt-tripped by an annoying little bastard like you? What, did you think I would have welcomed you with open arms and a cup of hot chocolate, huh? Or, I dunno, maybe you thought I would have let you stayed a night, a week, a year? I could fucking kill you right here and now if I wanted to you shit-headed hob-"

A phenomenal amount of pain hit Zoro in the throat with enough force to lift his feet off the ground and he heard an echoing crack when his head came into contact with the tiled floor. His vision had gone white for a few seconds and when it returned it was blurry and distorted. Zoro tried to blink away the fuzziness that was brewing in his brain and was fucking up his senses. What the hell happened? Was the blonde hiding some kind of weapon? It must have weighed a tonne 'cos that's what it had felt like. And the speed, Zoro had never seen anything like it. If he knew that the blonde was gonna attack him he would have been able to dodge it easily, but it had come out of nowhere. He coughed violently and he lifted his head to allow easier air access. Something hard slammed onto his chest, pinning him to the ground. Now when he looked up he saw the blonde looming over him and he bent down with ease to mock Zoro.

"Now I may have tattered clothes and an empty wallet but that doesn't make me a fucking hobo. I'd advise you to not assume stuff about my life, unless you wish to suffer the consequences"

Zoro realised that it was the blonde's foot that was holding him down and he started to grind his heel into Zoro's chest, twisting the skin, probably his way of emphasising a point. Zoro winced and his body tried to reel away from the pain, but that leg was keeping him firmly in place. Shit, what the hell _was _this guy? How could a skinny ass punk like _him_ be causing so much pain, with just one _foot_? The blonde's face was covered in shadow, emphasising the look of pure hatred that was etched into his features and he kept grinding into his chest.

But Zoro had confidence in his strength and there was nothing he hated more than to be restrained like a caged beast. Zoro grabbed the foot that was pressing down on his chest with both hands. This annoyed the blonde and he tried pulling his foot away from the iron grip, but this was what Zoro wanted. Using his incredible strength, Zoro pulled the foot towards him, causing the blonde to wobble and lose balance.

When the blonde fell to the floor on his back Zoro stood up, bent down to grab the blonde by his shirt and lifted him up so that he was hanging a few inches from the floor in Zoro's grip. "I guess I'll just have to throw you out myself, huh?" Zoro walked towards the door carrying the blonde with him, "I did warn you, you little sh-oof" The blonde kneed him in the stomach with his eerily strong legs, hard to enough to wind Zoro slightly. This caused him to let go of the blonde, and when he bent over to cough hard he barely had enough time to dodge a roundhouse kick aimed at his head. Zoro retaliated by swinging a powerful fist toward the blonde's ribcage but he dodged this by ducking down to the ground in a crouch. Zoro thought the blonde would just stand up again but he was wrong. The blonde planted his hands onto the floorboards and launched both legs up towards Zoro's chin, performing a perfect handstand. Zoro dodged the black feet again but still had to defend himself when the blonde swung his impossibly long legs while still maintaining his handstand. The legs started to spin faster and quicker until the blonde looked like some kind of deadly black whirlwind. Zoro stepped back further but stopped when his leg brushed the side of the coffee table. Tch, he wasn't gonna break furniture that he'd paid for in some petty fight. Zoro stood his ground, crossed his arms in front of his face and waited for the oncoming impact. When the black shoe made contact with Zoro's ribcage his immense strength and durability prevented him from moving even an inch from where he stood. But Zoro was a worse liar than Usopp and he could never try to deny the fact that the kick had fucking hurt like hell. Did he have fake legs or something? Was he wearing prosthetics made out of _lead_? Zoro tasted the all too familiar taste of blood in his mouth (although he wasn't exactly familiar with the taste of his _own _blood) and spat the liquid out. Che, that's something he'd have to clean up later.

The attack was effective; however it had left the blonde in a vulnerable position. Zoro took a swing at the blonde's leg, and although he did make a full impact, it wasn't as powerful as Zoro would have liked. Damn, the suit was restricting his moves like a fucking straightjacket. If only he had his swords, he could finish this fight in 2 seconds without having to defend himself all the time.

The blonde shrugged off the punch like it was nothing and flipped over to stand straight again. Like a black cat, the blonde whisked through the air at lightning speed and went in for another roundhouse kick. Zoro, again, had to dodge and so he ducked down to the floor in a crouch. He looked above him to see if it was clear for him to stand up again but he saw a black leg hovering above him waiting to slice down like a guillotine. He leapt to the side and heard the sound of wood being shattered behind him.  
Zoro was fuming, he couldn't allow this man to get the better of him, not this annoying, money stealing, insulting, rude little shit. But when he stood up and swung round to see what the blonde was up to next, he was surprised to see the man standing with a relaxed posture, his hands shoved into his black trouser pockets, looking up at the ceiling. Although his breathing was a little heavier than normal, Zoro tried to keep as still as a stone statue to avoid giving off the impression that he had let his guard down. When the blonde turned his head a little to look at Zoro, he flinched slightly, expecting the blonde to come flying across the room at him with another barrage of kicks, but he simply looked at him with a thoughtful expression. They stayed like that for a few seconds, with Zoro feeling like the most confused man on earth and the blonde looking like he was calculating something in his head, until finally he spoke.

"Okay, I've decided" he said.

"Huh?"

"I've decided. You're gonna let me have a shower in exchange for me cooking dinner"

"What the- _you _decided? _I'm _theone who's gonna make the decisions here, not you, got it? You've let yourself into my house without permission, you've also insulted me and attacked me for no goddamn reason. The only thing you need to do is to get the hell outta my house before I slice up your skinny ass"

The blonde lowered his head slightly so that his visible eye was covered by his hair but his soft smile was still visible.

"No reason, huh?"

"What was that?"

The blonde snapped his head up quickly and had a new scheming look in his eye.

"I guess that moss on your head has infected your brain and made you more even more stupid than I originally thought you were. If you'd actually _think _over my proposal you'll realise that everything works out in your favour. All I want is to use your shower for at least 5 minutes in exchange for a free meal. And I don't mean your average fry up I mean the best meal you've ever fucking tasted. I'm also willing to accept the use of your shower as a sign of gratitude for saving your life this morning. That means you can spend the rest of your life guilty-free and never have to think about me and what I did ever again. Capiche?"

Zoro thought about the offer. A free meal didn't sound too bad, and he was just too tired and frustrated to even give a shit anymore. And there was the promise he had made to Chopper out in the hall. If Chopper saw Zoro throwing a possibly sick and injured person out of his apartment he would go ballistic on his ass, especially when he had agreed to take care of the stupid, annoying prick. Shit, he was going to regret this. Zoro covered his eyes with his hand and rubbed his temples, while letting out a big frustrated sigh.

"Fine, fine. Anything to shut you up". The blonde also let out a big sigh but his was of relief. The blonde looked around the apartment awkwardly, "Errr..."

"It's to your left, down the hallway and past the bedroom. There's towels in the white cupboard next to the mirror."

"Oh, thanks moss-brain" The blonde turned to go behind the glass sliding door that separated the hallway and the living room/kitchen.

"Hey!" Zoro shouted after the blonde, and he stopped to turn around by the glass door.

"What?" he said.

"I'll feel much better knowing the name of the person who's gonna use my shower. Or would you prefer me to just call you "annoying, bitchy, blonde shit-head"?"

The blonde chuckled softly at Zoro's creative naming skills. "How about you tell me your name first and then I'll consider telling you mine, mosshead?"

"Zoro Roronoa"

"I'd say it's nice to meet you but I think we both know I'd be lying"

"Ditto"

"Ha-ha! I think it's best if I stick to moss-brain for now though." The blonde paused for a few moments, pulling a face that looked like he was trying to recall his own name. "Sanji Black" he finally spoke while turning round to walk toward the bathroom.

Sanji, huh? What an annoying name,...it suits him. Zoro looked around the apartment. Strange, it looked even more emptier than usual. Zoro went into the bedroom to change out of the annoying suit. He could hear the noise of the shower droplets hitting the glass encased around the bath through the bedroom wall and it calmed him a little, it was a similar sound to rain pattering on the windows, something he would often listen to to help him meditate.

Zoro sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. What a day. Nearly getting run over, meeting the most annoying man in the world and fucking up his plans for achieving his dream, wasn't exactly what he had planned for the day when he woke up this morning. Zoro looked toward the bedroom window and the white sword that was placed in front of it. The pure white hilt was a stark contrast against the orange and purple evening sky, and its gold plated tip glistened in the setting sun.

He couldn't get the gruesome image of Kuina being hit by the truck instead of him out of his mind. In his moments of hurriedness he had completely forgot to even look back to see if she was still there. How could he have forgotten her like that? He thought about her every single day, there was never a day that went by when she wasn't in his thoughts. She was in his dreams, sometimes his nightmares and whenever he trained he would imagine he was fighting her, imagined that he was still a child and that he had never left the dojo. Zoro brushed away the useless thoughts, there's no changing what's already happened. What the hell was the point of just sitting around moping? Getting that job wasn't his only option of making a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Zoro decided that he would visit that place, he was certain there would be a big tournament being held there in 2 weeks. 2 weeks to train and practice, 2 weeks to get his goddamn head screwed on.

Before taking his jacket off he reached inside his pocket to find the blonde's wallet. He must have forgotten about it. Zoro's mind flickered back to what happened before the blonde kicked. And when he remembered what he was about to say, he didn't blame the blonde too much for kicking him. It must have been stress from the long day that had caused him to say those spiteful words; he was going to need a long meditation session tonight. And that meal better be fucking worth it.

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So did you enjoy the wonderful Zosan XD. There's going to be plenty more interaction next chapter so look forward to that ;). Also I just want to point out that Sanji didn't necessarily _win_ the fight I'd call it a tie but he definitely had the advantage. Zoro's definitely strong, but without his swords in my opinion he could be seen as equal to Sanji. Plus the fact that his suit was tight and he didn't want to break his poor furniture stopped him from getting any good hits in. So yeah :P


	3. Chapter 3

Heeeeeey! Omg omg omg, I am soooooooo sorry about not updating for so long this is getting bloody ridiculous. I have had a TERRIBLE cold, it's been horrible and well computer screens and headaches mix well, yeah. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a very very happy new year! Don't forget to review (omg reviews make me so happy), follow and fav 3

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How long had it been since he'd had a shower? Too fucking long apparently, since Sanji didn't even want to move, let alone get out of the shower stall. He didn't think that being clean would have made such a difference to how he felt, but it did. He felt like he wasn't just washing away all the dirt and grime that had accumulated on his skin and hair over the past few months, but he was also washing away bad memories that he had experienced in the same months. They weren't completely gone, how could he possibly forget what had happened? But it felt like he was stepping into a new pair of clothes or waking up to a new day, the memories were still there, but he just knew for sure that they were in the past. But then, who was to say that there wouldn't be more bad memories to come?

Sanji slapped his face with both hands. Damn, he needed to stop thinking like that, needed to stop getting himself down and thinking that life was impossible. He had lasted this long on his own without money, food, or a place to stay, what the hell's stopping him from lasting another few months, heck, years even. Sanji scrubbed at his hair vigorously, digging his nails into the roots, making sure that he got rid of every little particle of dirt or grease that clung to his bright blonde hair. He tipped back his head and opened his mouth to let the water run down his raw, dry throat and swallowed several mouthfuls of the precious liquid. Sanji looked around the shower stall to find any spare shampoo. He spotted a half empty bottle of befitting mint shampoo, but his eyes caught sight of a gift set of expensive looking assorted soaps and toiletries. As revenge for the moss-head's spiteful insult, he grabbed an unopened bottle of shampoo and used up half it.

Sanji looked down at his feet to see that the water had turned slightly red. The water had mixed with the blood being produced from the fresh blisters and cuts on his feet and he winced at the state of them. They looked so mangled and disgusting; he was having a hard time trying to believe that they were even _his_. If he had left them like that any longer, no doubt the next time he took his shoes off there would be maggots pouring out of them.

Sanji's stomach turned at the thought which mixed with the nauseating pain of hunger and caused him to go light-headed and he leaned against the wall. He had been so close to eating food today, but he had to fuck it up by letting his uncontrolled anger take over. As soon as he had found the life-saving pieces of paper in the moss-head's wallet, he marched straight over to the nearest restaurant he could find and ordered nearly everything on the menu. The snobby waiter had looked at him strangely and asked if he was joking. So Sanji resorted to giving the man the money as proof that, yes he did have the money for that amount of food. So the waiter took the money away and Sanji sat there with his tummy rumbling, waiting.

But then…then some asshole had to start complaining to the manager that he "smelt appalling" and that they shouldn't allow hobos off the street to eat in those kinds of establishments. He lost control of any rational thought and just walked over to the bastard and made a dent in his nose with his foot. Once he realised what he had done, the manager was already on the phone to the police, and that was Sanji's cue to get as far away from the place as possible.

Once he got out of the heavenly shower he went to pick up his worn out clothes, brought them up to his nose and inhaled deeply. Shit, they smelt just as disgusting as his ragged coat, that sickly sweet smell people would immediately associate with garbage and dumpsters (and they wouldn't be that far from the truth). Sanji supposed there would be no point in taking a shower if he was just going to be covering himself with clothes that had the same stench as his body did before the shower.

He covered his lower half of his body by wrapping the biggest towel he could find in the white cupboard around himself, before folding the stinky clothes into a neat pile and tucked them under his arm. He grabbed a smaller towel from the same cupboard and dried his hair haphazardly until it was slightly damp. Sanji wiped away the water vapour that had appeared on the mirror above the sink and stole a quick glance at himself. Surprisingly, this was one of his old habits that he could still perform with ease. Car mirrors, shop windows, even puddles or fountains could be found on nearly every street. He'd use them to check to see if his eyebrow was well covered or to see how black or blue his fresh bruises were.

His hair had flopped down into its natural parting, and his bangs neatly covered nearly half of his face, just how it should be. However the plaster that was covering his cut had loosened due to the water and had peeled away so that it was just dangling above his eye. Sanji snatched it off and threw it in a bin near the sink and inspected the cut. It didn't look too bad, sure it looked kind of deep, but at least it hadn't turned a funny colour like the time when he had cut himself on a can of...whatever the hell it was, whilst rummaging through a dumpster. Finally satisfied, Sanji unlocked the door and walked straight past Zoro's bedroom and headed towards the washing machine. The green-headed idiot might make a fuss over him using it, but he didn't care, he'd find some sort of excuse to get away with it. For now he needed to find a new change of clothes, that grumpy shit should have some.

After shoving the suit and his coat he found lying around somewhere into the machine and turning it on, Sanji walked into the bedroom. He stood in the open doorway and stared at the green-headed man sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him to notice his presence.  
The guy was cleaning a katana, an actual katana! He'd only seen them on TV and in museums, never in real life. Was the guy some kind of kendo fighter? But, don't they use fake swords? Shit, had he just walked into some psychotic serial killer's home? Sanji was put slightly at ease when he noticed another katana lying, sheathed, next to the guy's leg and a third one in a stand next to the window. So, he might be some kind of collector, if he has that many swords, there might be more lying around the house. Must be some kind of samurai wannabe, how pathetic. When he realized that the guy wasn't gonna lift his moss covered head any time soon, Sanji leant on the doorframe and spoke first.

"Hey shithead, you got any spare clothes that would fit me?" He didn't lift his head, didn't even look away from cleaning his stupid stick. Rude asshole.

"Oi, shit-head I don't remember you having a hearing problem before. Cat got your fucking tongue, huh?" That earned an annoyed huff from the moss-head. He lifted his hand to point at a set of drawers to Sanji's right, but said nothing.

"What an annoying asshole," Sanji mumbled while pulling out a few drawers. They were mostly filled with joggers and hoodies; damn this guy had no sense of fashion whatsoever. Judging by his well-designed apartment (not to mention its great location and view), Sanji assumed that the guy had quite a fair bit of money. Plus he was wearing that not too shabby looking suit... so why in the hell did he not have any nice, designer clothes for crying out loud. Leaving his angry thoughts aside Sanji started to rummage around to find something that would suit him. After realising that anything remotely clean was better than something that would match his tastes, Sanji pulled out a pair of navy blue joggers and a black hoodie, but paused when he was about to lift away the towel.  
Shit, he had put his underwear in with his suit for washing; they almost smelt worse than the suit. Goddammit, his situation just kept getting worse and worse. He used to be able to call himself a gentleman, a gentleman who served the most beautiful women in grandline, who cooked dishes worthy of kings and spent nearly two hours polishing his fine leather shoes. That goes without saying; he used to be able to do a lot of things before his life was turned upside down. But being a gentleman was who he was and nothing would ever change that, whether he was a hobo or a chef working in a five star restaurant. And gentlemen don't wear dirty fucking underwear.  
So now he was actually about to ask the mosshead if he could borrow a pair. Sanji reassured himself, he could do this. Sure it was kinda embarrassing, but there was no helping it, it still had to be done.

Sanji scratched his head awkwardly. "Urr listen moss-head, there's no nice way I can word this-"

"What is it?" Zoro's voice cut through the quiet atmosphere like the sword he held in his hands and Sanji was taken aback for a few seconds by the sudden return of his voice.

"D'you...err...mind if I...well. Ugh, listen shithead can I borrow some underwear?" Sanji braced himself for the look of outrage on Zoro's face when he turned around to look at him.  
But Zoro's head did not move and Sanji was left staring at the back of it, waiting with baited breath for his answer.

"Sure" Zoro said simply. That was it? No remark, no annoyed sigh, no harsh tone just a "sure". Sanji was of course thankful but he was just...confused. Perhaps cleaning his swords was some kind of anger management method. If it was then it definitely worked, 'cause the cabbage-head was acting completely different to how he was before, which was only ten fucking minutes ago.

Sanji picked out a nice clean looking pair of boxers and slipped them on underneath the towel. He then set to work on putting on the hoodie and pair of joggers and folded up the damp towel on top of a radiator. He looked back over to the cabbage-head who was still keeping his head fixated on the sword. Seeing him like that, so calm and concentrated and with his back to him, for some reason, pissed Sanji off in the same way Zeff used to.

"So, what's with the swords then? You some kind of art collector?" Sanji said while walking towards Zoro.

"I use them for fighting. They're my weapons."

"Heeeeh? So, what, they hold tournaments for this kind of thing? I thought you aren't allowed to use real swords?"

"They're allowed in the tournaments I enter" Zoro said with a hungry/ evil look in his eyes.

"So is that what you do for a living? I don't think I've ever seen a "swordsman" wearing a suit before."

The moss-head finally moved his head to look up at the suit, now hanging on the wardrobe door. He shifted uncomfortably and delayed his answer for a good few seconds.

"I don't...usually wear suits to work. I...had an interview this morning...that's why..."

"An interview, eh? Life of a swordsman too dangerous for you, is that it? Thought you'd settle for a nice little office job, huh?" Zoro's face immediately turned sour and he scrubbed at the scabbard with anger.

"Shut it, blondie" Sanji couldn't help the smirk from spreading across his face. Bingo.

"So, what was in the job requirements? Bad anger management issues? A weird obsession with swords? The inability to cross a fucking street? 'Cause if it was then you've probably got the job"

"I said shut up"  
"Hey what was with that anyway? What the fuck were you trying to accomplish, standing in the middle of a busy grandline street like you were doing this morning? And why the hell did you have your arm sticking out, did you fucking forget what air felt like?"

SHINK! Sanji looked down to see that Zoro had sheathed the well and truly clean sword. He laid it next to the other one on the bed and he turned to gaze at the one by the window.

"I have no idea what happened this morning. But if you keep pressing on about the subject, I will throw you out of this apartment, for real this time"

"Hah, yeah right shitty swordsman, last time you tried that you had your ass handed to you. Besides, even if you do find a way to "throw me out" as you put it, I happen to know someone who won't be very happy about that" Zoro head snapped to the side to finally look at Sanji in the face, and his brows furrowed with confusion.

"What the hell are you talking about you shitty blonde"?  
"Yeah, I think I might go and tell my new friend Chopper how bad you are at breaking promises. You were supposed to "look after me" weren't you?" Sanji found Zoro's new face utterly hilarious and burst out laughing.

"What the fu- YOU HEARD THAT! So you were awake you shitty blonde!"

Sanji's laughter died down into mild chuckles, "Haha, of course I was, how the hell could I sleep through your-"

"What the fuck is up with your eyebrow!" Zoro shouted, cutting off Sanji in mid-sentence and startling him slightly.

"M-my eyebrow?"

"Why the fuck is it curly? D'you make it look like that?"  
Of course! The green ape had never seen his eyebrow before. This morning it was probably covered by the blood coming from the cut, and then the plaster he was given was big enough to cover the cut and most of the eyebrow. This was the first time the idiot had even looked him in the face since he'd got out of the shower. Sanji rolled his eyes with exasperation.

"Wait, have you never noticed it before? That's the only excuse I can come up with as to why you have such a stupid lookin' thing on your face."

"You fucking shit-head I was born with this". Sanji pointed at his eyebrow "And, I'll have you know that this is my most appealing feature according to the ladies"

"Hah, yeah right. The only thing appealing about it is that it looks like a dartboard. If you stand still I could use you for target practice"

"Shut the fuck up shitface, you're in no position to criticise my looks! What the fuck kind of hair colour is _green! _Aren't you a bit too young to be rebelling against your parents?"

"It runs in my family, curly-brow. I've heard it's got something to do with our genes. And besides, there's no way it looks as bad as that dartboard you've got for an eyebrow"

"What th-you...you FUCKING MARIMO!"

"Hah? Marimo?"

"Yeah that's right. A mindless, senseless, emotionless ball of useless algae, that drifts aimlessly along the bottom of the sea! That's what you are, A FUCKING MARIMO!"

"You little-" KNOCK KNOCK!  
Both men turned their heads towards the sound of the interruptive knock. Zoro clicked his tongue and shoved Sanji to the side as he barged past him. "Do not leave this room" he said quietly but sternly. Great, so now he was the equivalent of a dog. But he did as the marimo had asked and just stayed still and didn't make a single sound.  
Sanji heard Zoro opening the front door, followed by him shouting "Is anyone there?", a rustling sound and then the click of the door shutting.

A prank? He didn't see any kids in the apartment and the boy called "Chopper" he had met looked didn't look like someone who would bobby-knock his neighbours' apartments. Sanji's pulse started to quicken, his palms became sweaty and his mouth went dry. Calm down, he told himself, it could be anything, don't assume the worst. He'd made absolutely sure that no-one saw him go into this apartment block, and besides, they wouldn't _dare _enter a public building without permission. They have no idea who the marimo is and that he's currently in the man's apartment, so calm the fuck down.

Sanji popped his hands in the two oversized hoodie pockets and dragged his feet heavily as he walked out of the bedroom and around the corner, feigning the fact that his heart beat faster with every step he took. He let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding when he saw the marimo standing in front of the door holding a grocery bag in his arm and scratching his head. He really was an idiot.

"What's wrong with the door, marimo? Trying to figure out how to use it?" Zoro dropped his scratching arm and sent a scowl towards Sanji.

"Fuck you curly-brow"

"Who was at the door?"

"Must've been Robin, she usually buys my groceries on a Wednesday. Guess she didn't want to talk, or something."

Sanji scoffed. "You fucking ape! You force lovely ladies to buy your groceries? How could you?!"

"I don't _force _her to do anything, she offers. And Robin is not "lovely", she's just...cool, I guess."  
A charming smile appeared on Sanji's face and he stood up straight.

"May I inquire as to how old Miss Robin is?"

"Urr...30 I think, why are you talking like tha-"

"Wait wait, so does Miss Robin live in these apartments?" Sanji asked as he danced on the spot with hearts in his eyes.

"Urr...yeah she lives next door"

Sanji went to straighten his tie but grabbed at nothing, and he looked down at his clothes. "Ah shit, I can't possibly be in the presence of a lady while wearing these shitty clothes. Hey marimo got another suit in that wardrobe of yours I can borrow?"

"Don't even think about it curly. Haven't you got a meal you should be cooking right now?"

Crap, he'd forgotten about that. The conversation about swords, the heated argument, the possibility of flirting with a lady after so long, had served to dull the pain and emptiness in his stomach. As soon as he realised that he was about to cook again for the first time in months, his mouth started to water and his stomach grumbled loudly. Zoro shook his head in response to the noise and peeked inside the bag. He then threw it over to Sanji who caught it unceremoniously. That shitty marimo!

"Oi don't throw food around!"

"Whatever, just get on with it" Zoro said with a yawn and walked over to one of the couches in the living room area, dropped into its cushions and picked up the remote.

"Ungrateful fucker" Sanji mumbled under his breath as he walked over to the cooker.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Twenty minutes later and Sanji was in agony. His stomach whined for food and it felt so empty that it made him feel sick, but there was nothing there to throw up. If he stayed like this for any longer his own stomach would start digesting his organs, eating him from the inside out.  
He had decided to make lasagne. When he first fried the onions the delicious smell hit him like a punch in the face, and his knees became weak. He'd had to resort to pulling up a chair to sit in front of the cooker. He was at his lowest point when he was stirring in the cheese into the beautifully thick and velvety white sauce. His stomach kept moaning through loud gurgles but he kept assuring it that it will all be worth the wait. He didn't even want to taste test the sauce in case his stomach might take over his mind and he would start lapping away at the sauce like a dog until it was all gone. So he trusted his skill as a chef and proceeded to layer everything together into a casserole dish. Just a few more minutes and the timer would go off and he would enjoy the warm comforting taste of lasagne.

There was a particular noise in the background that he'd used to take his mind off his desperate hunger. It was a loud and obnoxious noise and now that Sanji had popped the lasagne in the oven and was just waiting for it to cook, the noise had begun to irritate him deeply. It no doubt belonged to the only other person in the apartment. He could only see the back of the chair the marimo was sleeping in but the TV was directly in front of him. He was at first bewildered when he had turned around to see that the marimo was watching a children's TV show, but he realised that he had just turned it on to serve as eradication of the awkward silence between the two. The noise was of course the marimo's extremely loud snoring which sounded like a fucking jet engine that had something caught in it. His hatred for the ignorant, lazy selfish man intensified with every horrific inhale through the nose he heard. Just because the idiot had agreed to let him take a shower and presumably let him share this meal, it didn't mean he had to like the guy. He hated people who just assumed stuff about him just because of the way he looked and smelt. Yes technically he was homeless but he had no say in what happened to him. From his perspective, he was the victim of this whole affair; he hadn't done anything to deserve this. So that was why he had lost it and attacked the moss-head. But the man truly was extraordinary. He hated a lot of people right now, one person in particular. But the marimo just seemed to know how to tick him off in every single way possible which made him react just like he did with Zeff. But Sanji couldn't deny that it wasn't fun to piss the marimo off.

From the corner of his eye he saw two tanned arms rise from the top of the couch and also noticed that the snoring had vanished. Sanji jumped at the sound of the cooker timer going off and grabbed a towel and folded it several times. While he took the lasagne out of the oven (which smelled like heaven itself), he could hear the heavy footsteps of the annoying bastard coming towards him.

"So what are you, some kind of cook?"

"I'm a _chef,_ well I used to be, but I'm a damn good one"

"What do you mean "used to be"?"

Sanji paused slightly in his sprinkling of salt and pepper over the oozing cheese layer.

"It means I used to be one. I used to be a sous-chef in the Baratie, the best restaurant in Grandline. I...quit a few months ago, damn head-chef was always pissing me off and always looked down on me."

"Hmm. That's a nice story curly-brow but I have a slight suspicion that it was the other way round and you're just trying to cover up the fact that you got _fired_."

"Fuck you, you shitty marimo, if you keep assuming stuff about me I swear I'll beat the-"

"Y'know I'm not even sure I should be eating something made by such a _shitty_ cook"

Sanji stopped before serving out the lasagne onto plates and lowered his head. He curled up his fists so tightly that they shook with anger and bit his lips to stop him from screaming the amount of insults brewing in his mind. So close, he was so close to filling his stomach after so long, he couldn't fuck up this opportunity by letting a shitty marimo get the better of him.  
Sanji picked a plate full of food and held it in front of his face, he didn't look at him.

"Food now, fight later."

Zoro let out an annoyed huff but took the plate anyway. Sanji shoved an especially large helping into his own plate and found where the cutlery was kept when he watched the marimo grab a knife and fork. Sanji found a suitable sitting place at a small table placed next to the glass wall. At first Sanji had mistaken it for a window, but no, the entire wall was made out of glass. It was like the beautiful city view was shoving itself in his face crying "look at me!", but how could he miss something like that.

When Sanji sat down he realised that the marimo had returned to his seat and started to gobble away at the food.

"Hey shit-head, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Sit at a goddamn table and eat like a proper human."

"Shut it shit-cook I've never had to sit at that table just to eat"

"You ungrateful shit. Here I am about to have the first meal I've had in weeks and I'm glad I can sit at a table and eat properly. You should learn to appreciate what you've got, shitty marimo."

The marimo only rolled his eyes, told him to "stop calling me that" and carried on feasting. There was no use in trying to convince an idiot. Sanji made sure to get a good piece of lasagne that included the juicy, meaty Bolognese, the creamy white sauce and the still melting cheese. And when the food finally entered his mouth, food that he'd waited for, fought for, stole for, he literally had no words to say and for the second time in his life, food had left him speechless.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Another half an hour later and Sanji was comfortably sprawled over the long sofa happily watching his favourite cooking show, after a verbal fight over the remote, and was sipping on a well-earned hot-chocolate. After waiting for so long, he could finally say that his stomach was full without lying. He'd helped himself to seconds, thirds and fourths, basically anything that was left in the dish. The marimo had berated him for "being greedy", but as soon as Sanji pointed out that he must have liked his cooking after all if he was pissed about Sanji eating it all, the mosshead quickly shut up. Then followed the argument of who would do the washing up, which included many creative curse words and a few kicks and punches here and there. Unbeknownst to each other, both men were extremely tired and wanted nothing more than to lie down, but Sanji caved in and begrudgingly got on with it. Then the washing machine had finished washing his clothes, so he had asked if there was a tumble dryer in the building. The mosshead quickly snatched the clothes away from him and said "I'll do it myself, you stay here", and ran out of the apartment. Sanji busied himself by making hot chocolate and settled down onto the sofa waiting for the marimo's return.

And now the two of them had finally settled down and was secretly enjoying the comfortable silence spread throughout the apartment. The winter sky had gradually become a deep blue indigo, and Zoro had forced himself out of his slumped state to pull the humungous blinds together. Now the only light source in the apartment came from the TV and it highlighted Sanji's sickly pale complexion. He was surprised when the marimo hadn't made any further attempts to "throw him out" and didn't even comment when he stretched out his long legs across the sofa so that his feet dangled over the edge. Outside the apartment, the building was buzzing with life. Sanji heard elevator bings, doors opening and closing, ladies giggling and shouts from angry men.  
Sanji couldn't help believing that all of this was a dream, that he wasn't really here and that he was really sleeping on the floor of a public toilet. He felt a lump forming in his throat and a tingling sensation in his nose and eyes. So this is what his life had come to eh? That feeling safe, clean comfortable, his thirst quenched and his stomach full, just felt plain _wrong _tohim. That it was the complete opposite of how he should be feeling.

"So?"  
Sanji blinked a couple of times before he realised that the marimo had asked him a question.

"Huh?"

"Why do you only use your legs to fight?"

"Isn't it obvious? A chef can't use his hands in a fight, what if they got damaged. If anything happened to my hands it would be the same as being killed."

"Is that so"

"And what about you Mr. Swordsman. Why do you have three swords, it's a bit greedy don't you think?"

"Not really that's just the style I've developed. I would fight with four swords if I could find a way to."

"Wait, don't tell me you actually use them all at once? How in the hell do you do that?"

"I only use three sword style for worthy opponents. So you probably won't be able to see it any time soon."

"Wha- y'know one day that cocky attitude is gonna be the end of you. You seem to be forgetting the fact that I was kicking your ass the whole time during that little fight of ours, maaaaarimo."

"Shut up shit-cook, I was holding back 'cos I didn't want to break anything over a fight with an annoying guy like you."

"Tch, liar" Both men fell silent for a few minutes before Zoro spoke up again.

"Oh, before I forget, here" Zoro reached into his back pocket while Sanji turned on his side. He caught the wallet that Zoro lobbed over to him and he casually looked it over.

"Did you look in it?"

"No"  
"Did you look in it!?"

"Ugh...fine, yes I did but I had every right to, seeing as you _stole _something from mine" Sanji couldn't argue with that.

"What did you find?"

"Just a piece of paper"

"Did you read it?"

"Yes I did read it, but honestly it doesn't matter to me either way. I'm not the kind of person who will go rooting around someone's private life out of curiosity and judge them on what I find."

Sanji, even though slightly pissed that the idiot had read something so personal, was glad to hear such words. And who knows, the thick-head might have interpreted it as something entirely different to what it actually is. The words could look like they mean anything, maybe it looked like someone had pulled a prank or something. Although there certainly wasn't anything funny about the ominous looking blood stains.

"Well, thanks I guess" Sanji slipped the wallet into his hoodie pocket and turned to lie on his back again.

Sanji's ears caught the sound of loud thumping footsteps as well as juvenile shouts and someone singing "Jingle Bells" obnoxiously loud. All of a sudden there was a loud banging on the door and the person behind it said "Zorooooooooo, what're doing cooped up in there on your own! Everyone's over Usopp's having a party, there's Ace, Brook, Nami, Chopper _everyone _is here apart from youuuuuuu!" Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose and Sanji looked over to him confused. Zoro put a finger over his lip and looked at Sanji sternly. Sanji seemed to understand him and stayed silent.

"Go away Luffy, I'm trying to meditate!"

"Ehh, then why is the TV on. You never meditate when the TV is oooon!"

"That's because I'm trying to drown out the racket the YOU lot are making, I can hardly concentrate."

"Ehhhhhhhh, no way"

"Luffy the takeaway's here!" Another voice shouted.

"Yosha! No-one start without me, the captain eats first, shishishishi!"

Sanji heard the so-called "Luffy" person run back into "Usopp"'s apartment. After no other loud noises followed Sanji settled back down with his arms folded behind his head and a smile on his face.  
"I guess I was wrong about you huh, marimo"

"Whaddya mean"

"Call me crazy, but you seem to give off the impression of a grumpy unsociable bastard. Turns out you've got a whole group of friends living here with you."

"They're alright I guess, they can be damn annoying though. I can never get enough sleep around here, either I'm being asked to play tag with Luffy or I'm being harassed by Nami over my damn debts."

"It sounds nice"

"Hah?"

"That kind of life, _your _life. It sounds nice. Being around so many people who care about you, who actually bother to talk to you because they are genuinely interested in how you are, who will say "Good morning" and "See ya" to you. I wouldn't mind it."

For the first time in a long while, there was awkwardness between the two and Zoro twiddled his thumbs, not knowing what to say.

"How long have you been like this?" Zoro finally asked.

"Been like what?"

"Y'know...homeless"

Sanji smiled gently. "Finally let curiosity take over, huh? Well you should definitely know that I haven't been like this since I was born. I think it was something like two months ago when I...well "became" like this"

"Are you gonna say why, or is that pushing my luck?" This earned a chuckle from Sanji.

"Sorry, marimo but sometimes, there are some things in life you're better off not knowing."

"Because?"

"Becau-" Sanji took in a sharp intake of breath, his grew wide and he shook slightly

"What's wrong?" Zoro asked, confused about Sanji's sudden change in moods. The unmistakable sound of a whirring of a helicopter's rotors from outside, was the cause of Sanji's discomfort, and he listened intently to how loud the horrible "chop-chop" sound was to try and pinpoint the helicopter's location.

"Marimo, go to the window, do it now!"

"What? I'm not-"

"Would you just do it!" The genuine fear in Sanji's eyes and the hinted desperation in Sanji's his voice convinced Zoro to go to the window and peek through the massive blinds.

"Do you see a helicopter?" Sanji had grabbed the edges of the sofa and squeezed the material.

"Yeah"

"Is it coming towards us, or away from us"

"I dunno I can't tell-"

"Is it coming towards us or away, just answer the damn question!" Sanji shouted, this time with extremely noticeable desperation in his voice.

"Alright! Shit..." Zoro squinted his eyes and watched the movement of the helicopter closely."It's going away."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes , it's definitely going away"  
Sanji let out a huge sigh of relief and dropped back onto his back, his minute of terror having drained all the energy from him.

"What was-" Zoro was interrupted by Sanji's sudden bout of laughter. Zoro heard laughter on the television and realised that he must have been laughing at something that happened on the show. Zoro shook his head, flopped back into his sofa and hung his arm over the arm rest. Zoro was aware that Sanji was pretending that nothings had just happened, probably out of embarrassment, so he did the same.

For the next couple of hours the two men sat like that, watching the TV in silence and occasionally asking one or two questions and throwing insults across at each other. Sanji was half-way through watching some Christmas cooking special when his eyes began to droop and his head felt heavy. He always felt tired at the end of a day, all he did was keep moving from place to place, never stopping, never staying in the same area for too long. But getting to sleep was always the hardest. If it wasn't the hard cold floor he used as a bed, it was the constant worry of being watched or the loud incoherent shouts from passing drunks and the threats being made by ignorants gang members. Now he was lying on a snuggly soft sofa with cushions he could lie his cheek against, and it was practically inviting him to sleep.

"...hey, marimo"

"What" Zoro grumbled.

"Can I just stay like this for a few more hours, say...until morning" Sanji waited awhile for the mosshead to reply but there was none. He took it as a yes. He shifted himself into a comfortable sleeping position and grabbed a cushion to support his head. As he looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, it didn't take him long to drift into a peaceful sleep soon after he closed his eyes.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The eyes were looking at no-one else but him. Every single emotion erupting from the eyes sent pangs of guilt-shaped daggers through Sanji. He couldn't move his face, his eyes, his body. The eyes were surrounded by hellish flames and detached arms came clawing at his skin and clothes and burning streams of tears trickled down his cheek. He found it increasingly hard to breathe and he felt like his body was being constricted by some unknown force. _Oh god...I'm so sorry._

Sanji woke up with a cold sweat and breathed in big gulps of air, his eyes darting around the unfamiliar place. Where was he? His vision was slightly distorted so when he looked around the room all he saw was a blurry mash of colours. His eyes focused on a particularly contrasting colour against the blend of whites and browns. Green? When his vision cleared, everything came back to him and he could make out the figure of the idiot moss-head, sitting at the table in front of the glass wall with a cup in his hand. Sanji looked down to see a blue blanket covering him, which he didn't recall being there when he went to sleep. He sat up and bent his long legs in front him, leaned his elbows on them and dropped his head into hands.

"What time is it?" he said while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. What a terrible dream.

"Eight o'clock"

"Shit I really should be going. Have err, my clothes been dried?" Zoro pointed at the folded up suit on the couch.

"Caimie came by to drop them off this morning"

"Ah the cute receptionist. How thoughtful of her! I shall thank her with a thousand kisses when I leave!" Sanji picked up the suit and held it closely to his chest.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Whatever ero-cook, just hurry up and change so you can leave me alone already"

"Yeah yeah." Sanji went into the bathroom to change into his fresh smelling suit and slipped the underwear in the laundry basket. When he came back out Zoro was leaning on the glass sliding door holding his clean coat. Sanji first went to put on his shoes that were left scattered along the floor and then grabbed the coat from Zoro and put it on.

"Well, thanks for everything marimo."

"Just for the record I still don't think you saved my life yesterday"

"Hahahaha, you still on about that? Well agree to disagree I guess?" Sanji stretched his arms to the ceiling and his shoulders popped.

"Ahhh, well I guess I should get go-"

"Are you a fugitive?"

"...eh?"

"Look I know you may think I'm someone who doesn't have a lot of intelligence, but I have enough to notice signs you've been making. I realised that you wear a hat to cover your ridiculous eyebrow, that's why you looked so frantic yesterday morning when you thought you'd lost it. Also when the ambulance was approaching you made sure to run away from the scene before it got there. And when there was a helicopter outside, you looked like you'd seen a ghost and was paranoid over the fact that you thought it was searching for you. So come on then, are one or not?"

Sanji didn't know what to say for a few seconds. He knew he should have been worried that the presumed idiot had been able to suss him out so quickly, but he couldn't help but be amused by the idea if it.

"Listen, marimo whatever ideas you've come up with, involving my life, forget about them. The less you know about my life the better. We won't be seeing each other ever again, I'll make sure of it." Sanji turned to leave but Zoro's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Okay, so let's assume you are a fugitive. Why would you make such a fuss to cook for someone who _clearly_ didn't like you, use said someone's shower and eventually stay the night on said someone's couch. You don't know me, you know hardly anything about me, I could be some some undercover cop who could've arrested you when you least expected it."

Sanji turned around slowly and smiled softly, more to himself than at Zoro, and his eyes grew saddened. "Sometimes, you just have to take a chance like that...y'know? And I'm glad I did. A person goes mad if they've got no-one to talk to. It doesn't matter who the person is you're talking to, as long as they are with you; you know you're not alone."

Sanji again turned away and walked towards the door but Zoro grabbed his arm and stuffed something into his hand. "Here" he grumbled, "consider it a donation to the homeless."  
Sanji looked down to see a few berri notes in his hand.

"I can't take this" he said, shaking his head

"Take it before I change my mind" Zoro said sternly and after a few moments hesitation Sanji stuffed the money in his coat pocket.

"Thanks marimo"

"Hold on" Zoro opened the door in front of Sanji and peeked his head outside to see if the coast was clear.

"Okay hurry up and get out of here" he said while shoving Sanji out the door. Sanji looked back at Zoro one last time and held his hand out. Zoro took the hand, shook it and nodded to Sanji, who nodded back.

"Don't get run over again in the future, shitty marimo!" Sanji called back as he walked away.

"Idiot! Don't raise your voice!" Zoro whispered. He quickly slammed the door hoping that he was safe from whatever happened out there. He leaned back on the door and his eyes shifted to a large hole in one of the floorboards.

"Ah shit".

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Did everyone get the joke :D Sanji ended up doing everything that Zoro said as a joke inthe last chapter, oh Zoro you big softie. I can't make any promises about a fast update for the next chapter guys cos I have exams coming up D: but I will try to write as much as possible when I have free time : ) Next chapter is a big 'un and very dramatic so look forward to it xxxx

Btw there's a quote in the chapter that's similar to one particular quote in Of Mice and Men. First person who spots it wins a cookie :3


	4. Chapter 4

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh! Gomenasai! Gomenasai! Gomenasai! I'm so sorry for the unbelievably late update! I should commit seppuku :'( Well all I can say to make up for it is well I've been stuck doing exams for 2 weeks so that didn't help plus the fact that this chapter was so damn long didn't exactly help either :'( But I'm back now with a nice fresh new chapter! Etto my writing style may seem a little different in this chapter cos I spent a little more time on this one than others. And yes it's a whopper of a chapter. 12,000 words! Really! But hopefully I can get the next chapter out much faster. I am never going to stop writing the fic until it is finished so if there ever comes a time where it really feels like I'll never release a new chapter please don't give up on it. No matter how long it'll take, I will keep updating chapters no matter what.

Please please please review fav, follow. Thankyou to everyone who have already posted a review, every single one of them is appreciated. Well done to Xarciel who guessed where the Of Mice and Men quote was, here is your imaginary cookie *presents cookie Enjoy!

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The recreational centre wasn't one of the nicest of places to be stuck in at 8 o 'clock at night and by yourself. The hallways were tall and wide which helped in producing loud and clear echoes of every movement that you made, echoes that would bounce and ricochet around the entire building. People would often have to reconsider whether they were truly the only human being left in the building.

Zoro had stayed behind for up to 3 hours after his classes had finished in order to make use of the free gym equipment and as much space as he needed. Every single day he was waking up as soon as possible and falling asleep as late as possible in order to cram in as much training as he could into one day. At first he was proud of the amount of the effort he was putting in to fulfilling his decision to become even stronger. But as the days rolled by, soon his pride turned into disappointment. Every time he lifted a weight, or swam a stroke or swung a sword, his mind was plagued with the question "Why haven't I been training this hard until now?", why was he not as motivated as he was 7 years ago? What could have possibly changed him?

Zoro finished wiping away the sweat from his chest and back and threw the smelly towel into his locker. After staring into the pretty empty locker, he let out an angry, frustrated shout and slammed the locker shut with enough force to break its hinges. He flopped back down onto the edge of the bench, rested his elbows upon his knees and nestled his head into his hands.

Something had happened today. Something happened that had deeply disturbed him and put him in a god-awful mood.

He had seen Kuina again today. Right in the middle of a judo class. Just when he was about to throw down a student to the floor, he heard her call his name again. She was standing just a few feet away from him and judging by tone of her voice, he thought that when he saw her, she would look scared or frightened, but she didn't. It was that same face again, same deathly white, numb and disappointed face. And then because of that one second of distraction, his opponent was able to lift up his legs from underneath him and topple him over onto his back.

…He had lost…again. And this time it was right in front of her. It was possibly the most shameless act he could ever think to perform, losing right in front of her eyes. Zoro knew why she looked so disappointed when he saw her. Because he still hadn't fulfilled his promise. She was waiting, had been waiting for god knows how long to fulfil his oath to her, an oath he had proclaimed in front of her father, an oath that earned Zoro the man's respect and his permission to use Kuina's sword. Zoro breathed out a tired sigh. Hopefully she won't need to wait any longer, because tonight he'd get that money and complete his end of the deal. But the fact that she even had to wait at all was something Zoro really didn't want.

Zoro pulled on his hoodie and then slipped his arms into his warm winter coat, zipped it up all the way to the top and made his way out of the centre, making sure to turn off every light that he passed. As Zoro thought about Kuina, his mind strayed to that eventful day 2 weeks ago. Although Kuina wasn't there to see it, losing to that blonde homeless guy was as equally humiliating. How could he have lost to such a shitty, annoying, money-grubbing idiot, in his own goddam home!

His fighting technique was…odd, to say the least. When Zoro first started noticing that the blonde was refusing to use his hands, he just assumed that it was because they were injured or something. But he was dead wrong. That guy didn't even need hands when he had those deadly legs of his. When he first got a taste of the destructive power behind those legs, Zoro thought he'd been hit by steel bat or something. The blonde was roughly the same height as him and yet his legs seemed like twice the size of Zoro's own, which only helped to give him a wider range of attack and a disturbingly pinpoint accuracy. He was sure he'd seen some kind of combat practice that incorporated only kicking techniques, but it never interested him. But that shitty cook was probably the most interesting opponent he'd fought in…years. If he were to ever meet the guy again, which seemed unlikely, the first thing he'd do is ask for a rematch.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zoro was glad for the warm burst of air that swept over his chilly skin as he opened the glass door into the apartment building. The green haired receptionist was there to say "Good Evening" and Zoro decided not to be a grouch that night and stopped to talk for a few seconds. "Yo Caimie, where's your brother?" Caimie took off her glasses and smiled ecstatically, probably glad that someone had bothered to stop and talk to her.

"Oh Hachi? He's working in err, what was it…ah the Rain Dinners mall."

"Another job?

"Mmm that's what I said, but he insisted. But he said we'll never raise enough money with the pay we're earning now…"

"Well, I'd like to say I could help but, I'm a little stuck for cash as well"

Caimie started shaking her hands frantically "Ah no, no, no I couldn't possibly ask you for money! I was just babbling haha, sorry I shouldn't push my problems onto other people hahaha"

Zoro glanced to the elevator doors. "Well, good luck I guess" he said while subtly moving toward the elevator as Caimie blabbed on.

"Ah mm goodnight, Zoro-kun!" she said enthusiastically.

After Zoro stepped lazily into the elevator and pressed the 12th floor button, he waited for the door to slide across but was surprised to see a hand pop out of nowhere and hold onto the edge it, preventing the door from moving any further. Zoro grumbled internally when he saw one of his neighbours invade the elevator and press the 11th floor button.

The man standing next to him was known as Trafalgar Law but Zoro had never gone out of his way to exchange greetings. This was partly due to the fact that Zoro was an unsociable bastard, but the fact that the guy was just plain weird could also be seen as a reasonable attribute. Zoro rarely saw him outside of his apartment and from what he did see he didn't look like he was fond of mixing with other people. Of course Luffy talked to him, he'd talk to anyone, and he seemed to like him at least. One thing Zoro did know about him was that he was a doctor, or something to that degree, as Chopper had mentioned seeing him pass by in the hallways of the Grandline general hospital several times. But apart from that, Zoro didn't know a thing about this "Law" guy. Oh, but he was also extremely fond of wearing a weird fluffy white hat with black patches, wherever he went. Other than that, he knew nothing.

"Who was that new friend of yours?"

Zoro was taken aback when he first heard Law's voice and it took him longer than usual to realise that the young man had asked him a question.

"Huh?" Zoro said dumbly as he looked at Law's shadowed face.

Law didn't look away from the elevator door but his creepy smile showed that he was amused by Zoro's pathetic response.

"That blonde guy sleeping outside your apartment 2 weeks ago. I assume he was a friend of yours, but perhaps not, considering the amount of noise you two were making after you invited him in."

Zoro was dumbfounded. He'd never talked to this guy in his whole life and yet the first question he ever asked him was about some stranger whom almost all of his friends didn't even know about. How could he pay so much attention to someone else's life? Was he spying on him? Or was he doing this on purpose, as a joke or something? 'Cos it sure as fuck wasn't funny. And wasn't he a bit slow? Everything he mentioned all happened 2 weeks ago…

Zoro cleared his throat and looked away. "I have no idea what you're talking about"

Law chuckled to himself softly, "I see".

Thankfully the elevator dinged and Zoro was glad to see the back of Law walking out of the elevator. He certainly didn't want to talk to that weirdo again anytime soon.

Just a second later and the elevator brought him up to his floor. Zoro was surprised to see the open hallway completely devoid of life when the doors slid open. There would have usually been at least one person running around causing havoc, especially in the night. Zoro shrugged and quietly stepped out the elevator.

"FOUND HIM!" Zoro turned his head sharply to see Luffy and Chopper panting heavily and looking like they were about to pounce. That was a definite signal to tell him to run.

Zoro immediately galloped around the balcony, scrambling frantically to fish out his keys buried in his pockets. "You're no getting away this time!" Shit, shit, shit! Zoro tried pushing the key into the hole but the damn thing was just refusing to go in. The breath was knocked right out of Zoro's lungs when Luffy came crashing into his side and he plummeted to ground with Luffy's legs wrapped around his midsection.

"Ow, get the fuck off me Luffy!" Zoro tried scrambling away but Luffy's vice like grip around his stomach prevented him moving even an inch.

"No we're not letting you get away! You're always trying to hide all the time. Stingy Zoro!" Both Luffy and Chopper stuck their tongues out.

"Alright alright I won't hide this time okay? Now will you let me go!? Luffy's frown immediately turn upside down and his eyes shone with new excitement.

"Really? Okay then, everyone's round mine and Ace's! You can play Timesplitters with me and Usopp, okay?" Luffy unravelled himself from Zoro and jumped to his feet, whereas Zoro heaved himself up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just let me go change-"

"Nooooo you have to come nooooooow!"

"Yeah don't be so stingy Zoro!"

Luffy and Chopper each took one of Zoro's arms and started pulling him toward Luffy's and his brother Ace's shared apartment. As soon as he was pulled into the place, a hand looped around his neck and a beer was shoved in his face.

"Zoro man! Where the fuck you been! We've been having party after party all week and you've just been mooching inside your apartment!" Zoro pushed his friend Ace's face away but gladly took the beer being offered, which was hard to do when Luffy was still clinging to his arm. Ace was probably what people would call "a best friend", as both him and Zoro were roughly the same age and often shared the same interests. And although he was the brother of the most energetic and childish teenager Zoro had ever come across, Ace had a streak of maturity to him, a trait that was hard to find on the 12th floor of the Sunny Go apartments.

Zoro peered around the room and saw Usopp squished into the flimsy sofa and Brook sat in the corner next to the red-headed witch Nami, tuning his violin. Even sitting down, the African-American man was still taller than everyone else in the apartment.

"Yohohoho it's good to see you again Zoro-san! Where on earth have you been?" Brook said when he noticed Zoro's new presence in the room. Nami looked up over an open newspaper and a scheming smile spread across her lips.

"Didn't you know Brook? He's obviously come to pay up his debt he still owes me" She said while crossing her legs.

"I told you I don't have the money right now" Zoro said while still being pulled by Luffy and Chopper toward the sofa.

"Oh that's a shame…I suppose I'll let you off this time, even I'll admit that 450,000 berri is hard to come by."

"450?! I thought it was just 150,000?"

"Ara, did you forget? You promised to pay me back 3 times over when we made our little deal Nami said sweetly.

"You bitch! If you know I can't get you the money why the fuck would you ask for more!"

Nami's face turned deadly serious, her eyes narrowed into slits and her voice dropped its sweet tone and replaced it with something much more sinister.

"Are you saying that you are refusing to pay? Perhaps words aren't a good enough method of explanation?"

Everyone else in the room went silent and pale and seemed to gulp all at the same time. Brook frantically waved his arms and tried to remedy Nami's murderous aura.

"C-calm down Nami-san! There's no need to get upset"

"Aaaaah!"

"What's wrong Chopper?" Usopp asked, worriedly.

"I've stayed too long! My shift starts in 5 minutes!" Chopper shouted looking at his watch. The little doctor grabbed his coat, said his goodbyes and off he went to work.

Luffy shoved Zoro down onto the sofa and placed a gamecube controller into his hands "Here you can play with me and Usopp! Mmmm but it sucks that Chopper's gone…oh! Ace you'll play with us, won't you!"

"Hahaha no way little bro, me and Zoro are gonna have ourselves a drinking contest!" Ace said patting Zoro on the shoulder.

"Eeeeeh! No way! Zoro's been wanting to play with us all week!" Luffy said, walking up to Ace.

"No, no, no that can't be right, Zoro wants to be a big boy and have some beers, ain't that right!" Ace stood up to enforce his superiority over his brother.

"Actually I have somewhere to go so-"

"See? He agrees, besides you lot can play with Nami"

"No thanks, I only play games if money is involved"

"See it has to be Zoro!"

Ace shoved Luffy backwards lightly with one hand, "Does Zoro seriously look like the kinda guy who'd wanna play a kid's game?"

Luffy shoved Ace back with slightly more force, "What the hell Ace! You were playing on it yesterday and you loved it! Plus Zoro always plays with us when we want a game of tag"

Ace bonked Luffy on the top if his head "That's because it's the only way to shut you up little bro"

First came the shoving, then came the head bonking and then punching and biting soon followed. The straw hat gang were no stranger to the two brothers play fighting as they both loved to show each other which of the siblings was stronger. However on this particular occasion Ace just happened to be fighting Luffy with an almost full bottle of beer in one hand and Zoro just happened to be placed uncomfortably in-between the two quarrellers. What resulted was what everyone who was watching expected to happen, everyone except Zoro. He jerked up into the air as soon as the cold liquid started to seep out onto his belly from where the bottle had landed. Everyone, including the brothers, kept still and silent as they watched the dripping swordsman stare down at his t-shirt, who was also still and silent. Before anyone could say anything, Zoro huffed loudly and stomped out of the apartment.

"W-wait, don't go Zoro!" Usopp shouted.

"We're really sorry Zoro, it was an accident, wasn't it Luffy?" Ace looked down at his brother.

Luffy nodded his head frantically "Yeah don't go Zoro, I'm really sorry!"

Zoro opened the door but looked back with a normal expression.

"It's okay Luffy, I'm not mad, I just have to go somewhere" And with that Zoro slammed the door behind him.

Usopp sighed "What's with Zoro lately? He seems much more grumpier than usual. I wonder if something is wrong."

"He's fine" Luffy said in a rare, deep and serious tone. "This is just something he has to do; we can't help him if he doesn't want it."

Usopp raised his eyebrow, surprised by the teenager's blunt statement, but didn't choose to question it.

XxxxxxxxxxX

Zoro rounded the corner of the street and spotted the lavish looking club that flooded blue fluorescent light out of its windows and onto the black pavement outside. It was meant to look modern; a place where the richest men and women in Grandline would gather to talk business deals, order cocktails and dance till their legs went numb. It was meant to look modern and refined because it wouldn't cause suspicion, if the police found out about the bar's secret, then it would be closed down for sure.

As he neared the entrance he saw Dorry and Brogy, two bouncers who guarded the entrance to the bar, as well as its secret, from low-lifes with big-ego's, empty pockets and no name to show for themselves. Zoro had fought countless big enemies before, but they were nothing compared to these 7 feet tall, suited giants. When standing together they created an impenetrable wall of towering muscle and the idiots who tried to force their way past them, usually ended up in an ambulance. Currently Dorry was holding an unfortunate young man by the collar and shaking him around as if he were a children's toy.

Zoro shivered slightly when a cold gust of winter's wind blew into his face and he cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed warmth into them. The night sky was completely black now, save for a few helicopters circling around, but in the early afternoon the clouds were an ominous mass of dark grey matter and thin films of ice had started to form over lonely puddles. Zoro had his fingers crossed for morning jogs in the raging snow, for little pennies of ice to hit him hard in the face while he ran against the wind and for the slight tweak of pain he would feel every time he inhaled the frigid air.

As he approached the club's entrance, Dorry and Brogy's heads immediately snapped toward him and they prepared to send a horde of threats his way but stopped when the clubs flashing, artificial lights illuminated the swordsman's green hair and three swords.

"Ohhhh Zoro-san we haven't seen you in ages, didn't think you were coming tonight!" Brogy said with an enormous smile that was almost as big as his head.

"Of course he would come idiot; it's one of the biggest tournaments of the year!"

Brogy bashed his counterpart on the head. "IDIOT you're not supposed to talk about that so loudly!"

Dorry growled and rubbed the top of his head, all the while still keeping a firm grip on the shivering man's collar.

"What the fuck was that for!? You wanna fight bastard!"

"Move" Zoro said simply, but it was said with enough deadly ferocity that it sent a shiver down each of the giants' spines and their hair felt the need to stand up on ends. They immediately parted to reveal black double doors and they bowed slightly, all the while wearing ridiculously cheesy smiles.

"Yes of course, good luck Mr. Roronoa!"

"Idiot he doesn't need luck!"

Zoro wordlessly passed the quarrelling pair and as soon he pushed through the ebony doors and stepped onto the fine adam's wood flooring, he felt like the booming, spectacular human aquarium before his eyes had swallowed him whole, and he barely had enough time to react to the change of atmosphere.

Shoals of people from all over the Grandline created a wave of locomotion as they danced, drank and socialised. There wasn't a person in sight that was stationary, apart from Zoro, and the mesh of oily colours that bounced off of people's sweaty skin could almost hypnotize you. The club itself was massive; it had to be, in order fit this amount of high-end gamblers and upper-class sluts inside its mosaic walls. The resonant techno trance music disagreed with Zoro's eardrums and his frown curved down even more, and the stifling sweat-inducing heat that radiated from the dance floor caused an instantaneous reaction. Zoro wiped away the sweat beads that had already formed so quickly on his forehead, and he shucked his coat off and had it taken away from him by an intimidated bartender.

He strained his neck to stare up at the big sharks that mainly occupied the second floor, seeking out the one shark that he was unfortunately dependent on. There were only the usual drug lords and casino owners that occupied the coral sofas, no sign of the man he was meant to be meeting tonight. Maybe he was already inside.

Zoro sidled over to the bar and plopped himself down on one of the high, club-chic stools and ordered a bottle of sake. Zoro was not one to rate many things in life, but alcohol was an exception. Sure he didn't mind an average bottle of beer, alcohol is alcohol, but when a first mouthful of acidic yet rich and creamy, authentic Japanese sake hit the back of his throat that had been worked dry from shouting at various people all day, there wasn't much that could compare to the feeling it gave Zoro.

After the fresh icy bottle was placed upon the coaster, Zoro immediately grabbed the neck of it and chugged down half of the liquid. He stopped and tore his mouth away from the lid, breathed in some much needed air and looked at his watch. 11:30, another half an hour and the fights would begin, and it could take a long time for all the small fights to be over and done with before his turn came along.

"Sir?"

Zoro looked up to see the stoic barman in front of him, holding a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other. Zoro took both and stared at the crumpled paper with scribbles on. There was nothing official, no organisational skills involved with this tournament and so there was no need for any proper entry methods. All you had to do was write down your name and your weapon of choice and that was it, you were entered. However it wasn't exactly as simple as that. In order to match you up with an opponent, organisers and judges will take into account your weapon of choice and whether your name meant anything. Zoro was fairly confident his name would earn him a place in "The Gladiator", a brawl named after its notorious nature of ending up as a fight to the death. But the stakes had to be high if you wanted a chance of winning the cash prize this year, 23 million berri. Never before had so much money been offered up as a prize for this kind of tournament, but its gaining popularity with bloodthirsty mongrels and criminal high rollers earned itself huge amounts of sponsorship deals. Of course he had no desire of owning that amount of money for himself, but he knew someone who did, someone who would blackmail, steal, kidnap or even kill someone for that amount of money.

Suddenly, Zoro felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder with a SMACK, which nearly made him choke on his sake, and he quickly slapped it away. He looked to his left to see whichever fuck-head thought it was smart to invade his personal space, but his anger subsided when he recognized the man standing next to him.

"Well, well, well if it isn't the demon trapped in a mortal body, come to buy his good old friend a beer!"

Zoro's face relaxed and he shifted his swords to make room for the man to sit down. It was strange not seeing the blonde middle aged man in casual clothes, it seemed like all he did was work at the Galley-La all day.

"Paulie? What the hell are you doing here?"

"One beer my good man. Ha-ha why so suspicious? Can't a guy go to a nice bar to enjoy a drink, relax and share stories with a friend after a hard day's work?"

Zoro simply raised his eyebrow, and after a few moments of silence Paulie gave in.

"Alright, alright. Look I borrowed a couple of berri from some guys and err one thing lead to another and it seems I don't exactly have enough money to pay them back fully. Ha-ha funny that, huh?"

"So you thought you'd find the answer to your problem here huh?"

"Damn right, this is the only place in Grand Line that you can get easy money, fast."

"Well, be sure to put your money on me. I'm planning on winning that 23 million berri tonight."

It was Paulie's turned to choke on his beer and he turned to Zoro with a baffled look.

"Oi oi are you serious! It's been ages since the last time you came here. I mean I know you're pretty damn strong and all, but the fighters have become a lot stronger since you've been away."

"Like I care. I'd be ashamed to call myself a swordsman if I'm defeated by some cocky ass punk who has no resolve. I've trained more in these past few weeks than I have in 2 years, so I'm more than prepared for this."

"Is that so?" Paulie rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well in that case, I might go ahead and put my remaining berri down on the table. No pressure, right?"

"Damn right" Zoro glugged down the last remains of the liquid and wiped his mouth.

"Oh, before I forget", Paulie reached around his back and magically produced a folded up newspaper and handed it to Zoro. "As soon as I saw this I knew I just had to show it to you. It's the main story, right there" Paulie tapped the biggest picture on the page knowing that Zoro wasn't one for reading newspapers.

Zoro peered closely at the black and white zoomed in image of some kind of fancy establishment. There was a sign above its massive window that stretched from the roof to the floor, much like his own, which read "Baratie", and Zoro was able to make out some of the interior of the building. Tables covered in white cloths and adorned with roses, candles and fine crockery was a good indicator that what he was looking at was a restaurant.

"Why are you showing me a picture of a restaurant?"

Paulie huffed with impatience and rolled his eyes. "You're not one for details, are you? Look closely at the window"

Zoro narrowed his eyes and brought the newspaper closer to his face. He concentrated on finding any worth paying attention to on the surface of the glass and after a few minutes of searching, found it. There was a straight 4-5cm thick crack in the window running diagonally from one end to the other. That was impossible, the glass should be shattered into tiny pieces, it can't take that much damage and still be in one piece. No weapon could have made a mark like that…..unless…

Zoro looked at Paulie's face with a straight face and Paulie nodded.

"If what you've said about this 'Dracule Mihawk' is true, then I'll bet you any money it was him who left a little reminder of himself on that "Baratie" restaurant. Shit, at least that's the only explanation I can come up with"

Zoro's free hand went up to feel the indentation patched into skin through his white t-shirt, just the thought of Yoru slicing across that window caused his scar to become itchy and he felt the flesh underneath it heat up. Zoro suddenly shot up from his seat, rolled up the newspaper and turned to Paulie.

"Do you know where this 'Baratie' place is?"

Paulie started shaking both his hands "Woah woah hold your horses Zoro. Unfortunately there's a down side. See I only stumbled upon that when I was in a dentist's waiting room. Check out the date man, it's like 3 months old."

Zoro's mind was slow in registering this but when it started to set in, he slowly sat back down in his seat. Shit, what a fool he had been, surely after all these years he should know by now, that finding the strongest swordsman in the world wasn't this damn easy.

"According the article, the baratie had come under attack from some weird ass crime-lord, Don Krieg who was obsessed with taking over the restaurant. But the crack in the window must've been caused by a fight that broke out between Krieg and "Mr" Mihawk. He must've had some kind of personal vendetta against the scumbag cos 10 minutes later, when the police arrived, they were surprised to find Kreig and his entire gang knocked out and cut up in more places than you can imagine."

Zoro unravelled the newspaper and looked at it again. He smirked to himself thinking about what Krieg must have done to earn himself this "personal vendetta". Knowing Mihawk it must have been something stupid like "he disturbed my nap".

"That photo must have been taken by some passer-by, whoever it is they've got serious balls taking that picture and sending it to a tabloid newspaper. Those people standing outside the restaurant are the chefs; they probably witnessed the whole thing. If you want more information, your safest bet is to ask one of them."

Zoro looked back at the picture and studied the figures closely. Their outfits were enough to give away that they were chefs, pretty stereotypical. Hell the short stumpy one who had his back turned had the most ridiculously long chef hat Zoro had ever seen. But there was one who wasn't dressed typically, for a chef at least, who was sporting a black suit, a light coloured pinstripe shirt, and was smoking obnoxiously into the short man's face. Was he the manager or something?

Zoro forgot to breathe for a few seconds and his eyes nearly dropped out if his sockets when he spotted the stupidly odd looking direction the man's eyebrow seemed to take. No….it couldn't be…the world couldn't possibly be this small. Zoro stared harder at the man's curly eyebrow and his mouth started to gape. Sanji? The shitty cook? The shitty, annoying, smug, bad-tempered, thieving, homeless guy he had met just 2 weeks ago through mere coincidence, had actually seen Mihawk? Had actually survived an attack from him?

Fuck.

This was just his luck. Just 2 weeks ago the closest thing he could possibly get to finding out Mihawk's whereabouts was dangling right in front of him, taunting him, and he was so blind with irritation and ignorance that he had just let it slip away from him without him even knowing it was there in the first place. And there was no use in trying to find that shitty blonde. Grandline was a huge city, filled with so many people that can easily pass you on the street without you even being aware of their existence. Everything, from the vast mixture of citizens, to the underground trains and swarming taxi's, everything kept flowing like red blood cells through the tarmac veins of the city's body. And Zoro had come to learn that if you stopped moving, if you couldn't keep up with the endless cycle and collapsed to the ground in a sapped out state, the city itself would reject you and will refuse to let you back in.

And although it sounded harsh, Zoro knew that's what would eventually happen to the homeless blonde. But there was something else that convinced Zoro that he probably wouldn't see the annoying prick again. When he had said "you'll never see me again", to Zoro, it didn't sound like a mere throw away comment out of spite. There was meaning behind those words, words that would undoubtedly be supported by action.

Zoro scrunched up the newspaper within his hands. Dammit, if only he had asked the stupid cook if he knew anything about Mihawk. And even if he kept his lips sealed, if he gave away any sign that he was indeed aware of what Zoro was talking about, he would have even resorted to more violent methods of getting that precious information out that foul mouth of his. Zoro huffed miserably. Although finding the blonde would most likely prove to be nigh-impossible, asking him was certainly more favourable, compared to what he was about to do. There wasn't even a guarantee that he would get the location in exchange for the 23 million, it was just based on an unfortunate agreement that he seemed to have gotten himself roped into.

"You okay man? You seem a bit spaced out"

"Urr yeah…listen thanks for this"

"Hey, no problem, just helping out a friend who's saved my skin on more than one occasion."

"No, I mean it. I mean it's annoying that it's 3 months old and all, but this is probably the closest clue I'm ever gonna get, with the way things are looking right now. So, thanks"

"Well I thought I'd never see the day the Zoro Roronoa say thankyou! Bwahahahaha" Paulie smacked Zoro on the back heartily as he laughed loudly. Zoro grimaced slightly from the friendly attack.

"Oh and you're welcome," Paulie lit up a cigar he had fished out of his jacket and he then looked at his watch, "well then, enough chit-chat, are you ready to make me a big pile of dough?"

Zoro looked down at the newspaper again. Fuck it, he was already here, and there was no way I hell he'd ever walk away from a challenge. And who knows, he might actually fight someone interesting this time.

Zoro slammed down some berri notes onto the bar top and paused slightly before standing up and leaving the newspaper roughly folded up in a place where anyone was free to take it. He lightly rested his hand on top of Wado's sheath.

"Let's go."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Shit this place is grubby; we might as well be walking through a sewer."

The two men, both seeking fortunes, were walking down the narrow, concrete flight of stairs which led to the tournament arena. Both the exit and entrance doors were soundproof and so there was only the sound of the men's boots clapping heavily and lazily on the grey concrete and the sound of multiple water droplets dripping from the club's visible vent system high above them.

Zoro wasn't the most hygienic person in the world, but even his skin crawled every time it brushed against the greasy walls that surrounded the stairs. The dim orange lights reflected off the mouldy walls giving the area a disgusting dirt brown tone, and the stench of gone off sweat had mixed with the humid atmosphere, forcing Zoro to take in short sharp breaths to prevent him from gagging.

After a good 2 minutes of walking (and complaining on Paulie's behalf), the pair finally reached the bottom of the stairs and Zoro did the honours of opening the dishevelled, rusting door. Zoro never forgot the first time he walked into the arena. The sight was enough to pump his body full of excitement and adrenaline, and he had to restrain himself from entering the cage and cutting down as many opponents as he could. Hundreds of colourfully dressed betters and spectators surrounded the 14x14 foot cage which was placed smack in the middle of the warehouse-sized basement. Nearly every one of them was shouting at the top of their lungs with threats, insults and sometimes words of encouragement, and whoever was luckiest to have a front row seat, banged the sides of the cage in hopes that it would make the fight turn in their favour. The walls were moist with the water vapour from sweat and spit, the stench of blood and money that lingered in the air hypnotized you into a power hungry state and the entire arena was bathed in a haunting green light. And when the door was opened fully after screeching in pain, Zoro was greeted with the exact same sight.

Paulie whistled "Man, what a turn out, I didn't think this old den could fit this many people inside"

"Mmm" Zoro said distractedly as he looked up at the second level where the VIP guests sat. Well, it wasn't exactly "VIP". Rather it was the only place where anyone could sit, and the "guests" were the people who were heavily involved in the illegal underground fight scene. He couldn't see a damn thing though, as there were plenty of bodyguards that lined the railing, ready to pummel anyone who'd dare approach the kings and queens of this desecrated basement.

"Oiiii what the hell are you doin here ya bastard! Hahahaha" Paulie waved obnoxiously to someone Zoro couldn't make out in the huge crowd, "See ya Zoro, good luck and err don't get yourself killed!" Paulie said before merging himself into the sea of gamblers.

"Yeah…" Zoro said, still distracted in his thoughts. Getting past those guards was going to be a problem. He moved off towards the stairs and as he pushed past people he heard various grunts of annoyance but also whispers of "Zoro Roronoa? What the hell is he doin here?", "Shit if he's fightin I'm pulling out" and "I feel sorry for whichever bastard has to go up against him". Zoro kept walking with an unwavering confidence in his stride and but also a relaxed posture, as he rested his arm upon Wado.

As he suspected, as soon as he stepped just a few centimetres too close to the big sharks, the suited bodyguards all looked his way and their backs grew tense. The nearest one to him stepped forward, folded his arms and puffed out his chest.

"What the fuck do you want?" he asked politely.

Zoro groaned "Look, I'm not here for a fight I just wanna talk to Crocodile"

"Crocodile? What the fuck would he wanna talk about with scum like you"

Zoro narrowed his eyes and his jaw tightened, "Listen asshole, I don't have time for this, just move aside."

The bodyguard moved forward, sizing up Zoro and cracking his knuckles. "I don't like that attitude of yours, kid"

"That's enough" The deep voice made the bodyguard swivel round with a surprised expression.

"B-but sir, this man clearly-"

"You're not here for trouble, are you Roronoa?" The man's face was covered in shadow but Zoro knew exactly who he was from the sound of his voice. Zoro shook his head silently and shoved past the humiliated bodyguard.

"Crocodile"

"It's been a while, hasn't it boy?" Crocodile poked a large Royal Danish cigar into the side of his mouth and as he lit the end of it, the lighter's flame illuminated the man's dry, grey features, the very prominent scar running across his face and his greasy slicked back purple hair, which perfectly matched the man's slimy personality. He was sat in a comfortable looking black leather chair, looking as happy as a pig in mud, with a blue-haired woman in his lap, draping herself around his shoulders and an entire posse of dodgy looking thugs lurking behind him in the shadows.

"I'm here about Mihawk"

Crocodile puffed out a few smoke rings aimed at Zoro's face, but he didn't even blink when the smoke blew into his eyes like a poisonous ghost.

"Ah yes, our little deal. Well, do you have the 20 million?"

"Do you have the location?"

"Kehahaha, my dear boy if you want this oh-so-precious location I'll need to see the cash upfront first."

"How do I know you're not lying to me, and will just run off with the money as soon as I give it to you?

"Kehahahaha you hear that Miss Doublefinger? He doesn't think I'll keep my end of the bargain!" The blue haired woman slid her dangerously long nails under Crocodile's chin and stroked the dusty skin seductively and gave Zoro a sideways glance.

"Sir Crocodile is the most proud man I have ever met, he wouldn't even dream of deceiving anyone. Not even a scrawny, disrespectful rookie such as yourself"

"Kehahahaha, oi oi, no need to be so harsh Miss Doublefinger, though I must say I've always liked that side of you," Crocodile turned his attention back to Zoro, who was still standing stock still with a stoic expression on his face.

"So, that settles it. Unless you hand over the 20 million berri, you won't even get a whiff of that location."

Zoro inhaled and exhaled deeply and calmly, "Well, then. I suppose you won't mind waiting another, I dunno, hour or so. Then I'll have the money"

Crocodile was surprised for a few seconds but then broke out into a choked laughter.

"Kehahaha, what the hell are going on about Roronoa, where the fuck do you think you can get that much money in an hour!"

Zoro simply turned his head to look up at a massive chalkboard on the northern facing wall and Crocodile followed suit. His face turned sour and he groaned loudly.

"Don't be so fucking cocky Roronoa, I can't even remember the last time you even came here, let alone actually win anything"

"We'll see about that"

This earned Zoro a tremendously loud growl that erupted from Crocodile's dry throat along with an extremely visible throbbing vein to appear on his forehead.

"You bastard, don't tell me you're-"

"Yeah, that 'Gladiator' prize should help me get that 20 million berri you're after. Plus there'll be 3 million left over for my troubles; sounds pretty good to me"

"You little- don't think for one fucking second that just because you put your name down on a piece of paper it means you can fight. There are rules in this game, and if you don't play by them you'll just end up like those unruly animals down there."

Zoro didn't look away from Crocodile's face but also didn't prepare a comeback; he just needed to wait for a few more seconds. Crocodile though, was getting even more irritated by the second. However the sweats beads that were starting to form on his forehead gave away his slight anxiety. He jolted forward out of his seat, knocking back Miss Doublefinger on the way and he revealed his prosthetic hand, which happened to be a solid gold plated hook, by placing the deadly sharp tip underneath Zoro's chin, and he blew out huge puffs of smoke into Zoro's face.

"Don't you dare insult me, scum. What the fuck makes you think you even qualify for a fight like that. Your name isn't worth sh-"

"YOSH! Listen up bastards! The chalkboard's been filled, so now there's no backing out! All the names and times are on this board, so I don't want no piss break excuses if you miss the start of your fight! As you can see, tonight's competitors for the Gladiator match will be…" The whole room held their breath and even Crocodile stood wide-eyed and with baited breath, waiting for the commentator to announce the names.

"…Zoro Roronoa and Daz Bones, aka Mr. 1!"

The entire arena erupted into cheers of excitement, metal rattling and the sound of hundreds of boots stomping on the ground. Zoro simply couldn't resist showing Crocodile the cockiest smile he could ever produce and lifted his chin away from the sharp golden point and took one step back.

"Hope you've prepared yourself, Mr.0"

Crocodile withdrew from his shocked/outraged state and turned to stand facing away from his brethren. He had his back hunched and his head was hung low enough to prevent anyone from reading his expression. Zoro had never seen him like this after someone had pissed him off, so silent and non-direct and too ashamed to even show his face. It put him on edge.

The shadowy thugs began to stir and a wave of hostile intent crashed into Zoro, and so he responded by slowly unsheathing Yubashiri about 3 inches as a warning to show that he was just as prepared for a fight as they were. But crocodile froze their threatening advances with a raised hand and he silently walked back to his chair, sat back into it and received a shoulder massage courtesy of Miss Doublefinger.

"Very well, Roronoa, it comes down to this fight. Mah it doesn't really matter to me who wins or loses. But I daresay it might tarnish my reputation, if a rogue brute like you defeated my champion thoroughbred. I've invested a lot of time and money in order to make him the strongest man in Grandline. I hope you've prepared yourself Mr Roronoa."

Liar. There was plenty more in it for him. If Zoro wins the fight then he'd receive only half of what he could earn if this so called "Mr 1" won.

"Heh, sounds interesting." And with that Zoro walked away, past the shocked glances of the kings and queens and past the irritated bodyguards and thugs. Most likely they were all Baroque Works agents. This was an organisation, or rather army, that Crocodile had managed to create. It was full of loyal bastards ready to carry out any orders that came their way, moral or immoral it made no difference to them. But they were small time and weren't even worthy of getting a taste of Wado's sharp blade. Zoro ignored the looks and carried on down the stairs. He still had to wait awhile for his fight and so he decided to kill time by watching the other cage fights. Strongest man in Grandline, huh? We'll see about that.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The fights were boring, to say the least. Over 20 fights and none of them had succeeded in intriguing Zoro. He'd lost count of the amount of new "techniques" and "weapons" each fighter had managed to conjure up, but in the end they were just poor attempts at making up for their pathetic endurance and cowardly tactics. Zoro had never heard the crowd so quiet and so utterly bored by the lack of action. There were no sudden bursts of thunderous roars that followed after every hit that was successfully landed on an opponent, and angry chants made by the wild-eyed spectators who were unhappy with the outcomes of "0-0", were far more frequent than usual. With the way things were looking, Zoro probably didn't even need to warm up.

His ass cheeks were starting to feel numb after 10 minutes of sitting on a piece of concrete that was jutting out of the wall, and his skin was starting feel sticky and constricted underneath the thick cotton t-shirt.

From where he was sitting, he had a clear view of Crocodile looking very fidgety and irritated. Judging by the creases in his skin, Zoro could tell that whenever he spoke to one of his lackeys, his words were obviously full of hate and included scornful language. Any one of those Baroque Works agents could be his opponent but none of them especially stuck out to Zoro. Crocodile was probably waiting to reveal him at the very last moment.

Just when Zoro was about to stand up and take a walk the commentator made the announcement everyone was waiting for.

"YOSH!" Here comes the announcement you've all been waiting for! It's time for the competitors for the Gladiator match to enter the cage. Zoro Roronoa…Mr 1…come on doooooooown!"

Zoro's senses flicked back on like a light switch as soon as the quiet, monotone crowd burst back into life after the sweet, desired words reached their ears. They began to chant the word "Gladiator" over and over, with perfect synchronisation and accompaniment was included in the form of metal rattling as it was shook by hundreds of hands.

Zoro didn't need to push and shove in order to walk through the tightly packed crowd; everyone had parted in order to make a clear path toward the cage door. As he passed, people clapped him on the back and there were a few comments thrown at him which included "Kick that guy's ass, Roronoa!", "I've got 1000 berri on you, don't let me down!"

Zoro silently opened the flimsy cage door and his hands itched for his swords as soon as he stepped into the arena. His opponent stood directly opposite him, stretching his arms and neck. He was a tall man, much taller than Zoro, but his limbs, although muscled, were long and slender. His only attire was a long oriental looking, black sleeveless coat and a pair of loose pants. It was pretty obvious to Zoro that this was definitely the man he would be fighting, as he had a large tattoo of the Japanese symbol for the number 1 plastered over his chest.

The man's weapon of choice? Two thin, but extremely sharp looking blades held in each hand. Zoro shed his t-shirt as the feel of the fluffy fabric against his slippery skin was starting to irritate him, plus the rising heat of the arena was head-ache inducing. He heard the rattle of chains behind him, and looked to see that the cage door was being padlocked. That was a part of the rules; no-one is allowed to leave the cage until the timer runs out or if one of the competitors is defeated by the other.

Zoro looked over to the man again who was standing still with arms crossed, sizing him up. There was something about him that told Zoro that he knew this man, or had at least heard of him. And after a few minutes of reminiscing about days of old it finally came to him.

"I remember your ugly mug. I vaguely recall a bounty hunter that went by the name of 'the killer', am I right?"

Mr 1 or rather "Daz" simply narrowed his eyes and kept silent.

"They called you a truly magnificent and notorious assassin. But it looks like you're just someone's dog. What are you fighting for apart from money, little dog of crocodile?"

…

"Did you lick his hand to get a good treat?"

"Bastard, don't you dare insult Sir Crocodile"

"You fight for money. Pride also as a bill" Zoro untied the green bandana placed around his bicep and tied it around his head. All night he had been itching for this very moment, he was finally able to unsheathe two of his swords, Yubashiri and Sandai Kitetsu. This caused the audience around him to erupt in loud cheers of excitement and satisfaction. The rattling of the cage was even louder when he was actually inside it.

"What about you? Aren't you the same?"

"Unlike you I fight for a higher purpose."

"YOSH! Both competitors seem to ready to tear each other part! Now I hope you know the rules! There are no penalties, no best out of 3's, and especially no time-outs. Your fight ends when the 5 minute timer rings. Got that bastards!"

"Yeah, yeah I got it" Zoro rolled his eyes; he'd already heard this mandatory speech a million times before.

"YOSH! Then the fight shall begin at the sound of the bell!"

"3!"

Attack first, don't ever let him get the chance to gain the upper hand.

"2!"

Finish this up nice and quick.

"1! Start!"

DING!

Zoro lurched forward with katanas at the ready but Daz was there to greet him halfway and managed to block his attack with his blades that were aligned against his forearms. They stayed in that position and fought over each other's strength. Zoro eventually managed to overcome the test of power and managed to push away the blades along with Daz. Zoro took advantage of Daz's vulnerable stance and swung both swords, but were again blocked by the annoying blades. Zoro took a swing at Daz's midsection, but to his surprise, the attack was blocked by his leg. What the hell?

When the sword made contact with the leg, Zoro swore he heard the same metal clink you would hear when swords would make contact, and the man's leg felt much too hard for it to be made of flesh and bone. What the hell was this guy? Was he hiding more blades under those trousers? Zoro hardly had time to figure out the phenomenon however as he had to block an incredibly powerful rising kick aimed at his head, by crossing both swords. Zoro was once again trapped in a test for strength as he pushed against the confusing metal leg. And once again Zoro managed to push the leg away along with Daz, causing him to trip slightly. This would have been a great opportunity for Zoro to attack but instead he was forced to defend himself when Daz managed to recover from the trip and lunged forward with both blades, with much more speed than Zoro would have guessed the tall man was capable of. Zoro was getting slightly pissed off with the fact that he had to defend himself with crossed swords yet again, but there was no struggle for dominance this time around, as he was pushed back along the blood soaked floor by Daz and his blades. For the third time, Zoro shoved Daz away but the man quickly made a comeback by throwing a roundhouse kick at Zoro's head. Zoro bent his back as far as it would go in order to avoid the sharp leg and followed through by springing back onto his sword filled hands. The limited space within the cage walls prevented him from flipping back again, so Daz swung one of the blades down with enough force to crack the concrete floor, Zoro dodged it by flipping right over Daz's bent body and landed with his back facing towards him.

Zoro batted away every jab that was sent flying toward him by Daz. Finally Daz made a mistake that Zoro was looking for. Zoro blocked a final powerful swing made by Daz and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to cause Mr 1 to stumble backwards. This ended now.

Zoro gracefully slipped Wado's hilt into his mouth and bent down into the position needed to perform the first of his signature moves. In under a second, Zoro had burst forward and sliced through Daz's chest using all three swords. But he wasn't finished. If he wanted to win then he needed to finish this properly. While Daz fell to ground, with his chest open and spurting fresh blood in all directions, Zoro ran up the sides of cage and pushed away so that he was directly above his unfortunate opponent. Without any hesitation, Zoro used all three swords to perform a descending diagonal slash aimed at Daz's already bleeding chest. But the sheer force Zoro had concentrated into the attack was enough to cause Daz to plummet and crack the concrete floor beneath him. Zoro landed safely on his two feet, unharmed and undefeated.

The sound of the timer ringing signalled the end of the match and his victory.

"Well! Unless anyone one is blind or just plain fucking dumb, I think we all know the results. Winner of the Gladiator and the 23 million berri prize money, Zoro Roronoa!"

The whole audience seemed to shout and cheer all at once and volume created by it bullied Zoro's eardrums and he tried to block the noise out. But damn he couldn't stop smiling. Everything he had worked for had finally paid off; he finally had the upper hand. But most of all, after worrying and doubting about his strength and resolve so much, it felt so damn good to know that he still had it.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A cocoon made up of several Baroque Works agents had formed around the infuriated gang leader, a pathetic attempt to shield the loser away from the approaching victor. When Zoro reached the top of the stairs, angry faces looked back and shortly after the cocoon dispersed to reveal a purple faced Crocodile. A few strands of hair hung over his blood-shot eyes and his normally dry, cracking skin was being fed with fresh nervous sweat.

The thugs cowered away when Zoro approached, holding the suitcase full of prize money money out in front of him, blatantly telling Crocodile to just take it already. Instead he stood up and swiftly walked over to Zoro but made no sign to show that he would take the money.

"Congratulations on yet another glorious victory Roronoa. It would seem you haven't lost the ability to keep surpassing my expectations. Perhaps you would be interested in fighting for a better cause. I'm sure if you and I were to work together, 23 million berri will look like nothing in comparison to what you could be earning."

Zoro scoffed, "Look I'm not interested in fighting for you, or in money for that matter. Stop trying to pussy-foot around the fact that you lost. I fulfilled my end of the bargain; it's only fair if you fulfil yours."

Crocodile didn't like Zoro's response, not one fucking bit. He might as well throw his cigar away, because if he were biting down on it any harder it would burst into ash. He looked to the side and nodded to someone silently. They came forward out of the crowd and draped Crocodile's bulky fur coat over his shoulders and two extra muscly Baroque members came to stand behind him.

"Shall we?" Crocodile said, raising his eyebrows.

"Oi I thought I just said-"

"Yes, yes I heard what you said you little runt. But we can't do this here, too many eyes and ears. I know of a safe place where we can settle this"

Zoro gave Crocodile a questioning look and retracted the suitcase, holding it closer to him.

"Relax, there's nothing fishy going on, I'm not the kind of man to break promises, remember?"

Zoro scoffed and looked to the side, "Fine"

"Yosh, follow me."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Fuck it was fucking freezing. How much longer did he have to fucking walk? For a whole ten minutes he'd been walking while staring at the back of Crocodile's slimy head. Of course there was something going on, he'd have to be a mad man to actually trust a person like Crocodile. He kept a firm grip on Wado's hilt. But what choice did he have? Right in front of him was one of the very few people in the whole world who actually knew the location of Mihawk. He was so close he could almost touch it.

Zoro had been right about the weather though. When he exited the club the ground was wet with melted snow and from the sky fell thick pellets of slow-moving snow.

Finally, Crocodile made a motion to turn left and Zoro followed. Turns out Crocodile had turned into an empty alleyway, a very dark, secluded, empty alleyway. Okay this definitely didn't feel right.

"Alright, Crocodile what the fuck is going on?" Zoro said, drawing out Wado about an inch before stopping when he heard the sound of guns clicking from behind him. Crocodile turned around to reveal to Zoro his real face. A face that was dirty, lying, selfish, cheating and sly.

"Kehahahaha, Roronoa, the world isn't as kind as you take it to be. Now I offered you a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the man who will soon become the most powerful force in Grandline, but you foolishly refused it. It feels bad to have to get rid of such a potential money source, but I'm afraid I've come to the conclusion that if I can't have you, no-one can."

"Bastard! We had a deal!"

"Kehahaha! Fool! Did you seriously think I would know where that cowering, forgotten relic was hiding! I had no intention of telling you where he was from the start!"

"Fucking bastard, I'll kill you!"

"Oh? Perhaps you should consider how much of a sticky situation you've found yourself in. You're in an abandoned alleyway in the quietest area of the city; no-one will come to your aid even if you scream for it. Once we've shot you and watched the blood drain out of your body and see you breath your last breathe, we'll do everything we can to make sure there's no evidence of your murder left behind. It'll be as if you simply disappeared off the map, never to be heard or seen from again."

Zoro looked behind; the baroque members were at the entrance of the alley, guns steady and ready to shoot once given the command. Take a deep breath…

"Sayonara…"

…and…

"Zoro Roron-"

Too slow. Zoro had already dropped the suitcase of money to the ground and sliced an abandoned fire extinguisher in half before Crocodile even had time to finish his sentence. He closed his eyes and felt the dry powder surround him and Crocodile, protecting him from the gunmen's eyes. He heard Crocodile cough and splutter and was trying to fit a few swear words into the mix. Zoro wasn't interested in him though; he was going to take out those damn gunmen before he could think about beating the shit out of Crocodile. He turned around sharply, with his eyes still tightly closed shut and ran swiftly and carefully to where he could make out two presences, being cautious not to stir the smoke screen up too much. He felt a strong presence in front of him and sliced quickly and quietly, but the one being sliced was not quiet at all. He screamed and gurgled in pain and managed to alert the other man that danger was close by.

"Zoro!"…Kuina!?

…why…why was she here, of all times why was she here, now!

There was no mistake, no second doubting this time, that was definitely Kuina's voice. The shout was so loud, so full of energy and paradoxical life; she must be standing close-by. But…fuck he couldn't be distracted, not this time.

"Turn around Zoro!"

"I can't!"

"Turn around! Please!"

Fuck.

He did it. He turned around. He opened his eyes to see…nothing. There was nothing there, save for a thick white cloud of dry powder.

The sound of two gunshots verberated throughout the alleyway, their thundering echoes bounced off of the black walls and collided with each other. Zoro's breath leapt out of his throat as soon as the two bullets ripped through his skin and muscle and nestled themselves into the torn flesh. The impact and force of the bullets caused Zoro to shoot forward and threw him on to his knees. He felt blood entering his throat and mouth and he had to cough convulsively to rid himself of the liquid, only to find that the slightest movement caused lightning bolts of pain to travel all over his body. Fuck, it hurt so bad.

All his senses felt like they had just shut down, he couldn't feel anything apart from pain. All the shouting and yelling going on around him was muffled and incoherent, and he could hardly even make out what his eyes were meant to be showing him.

He could hear one thing though. It was so clear and so understandable, that it further confused the hell out of Zoro. Was what he was hearing real? No… it couldn't be…he wasn't hearing anything…rather, he was remembering. He'd definitely heard this before. He was remembering a comment, or perhaps it was more of a statement. It didn't really matter. And it was a statement that angered the hell out of him but also made him want to curse at himself a 1000 times over. He knew where the statement had come from, or rather who it had come from. Even though he hated the person who's voice he was hearing, even though he hated that shitty, stealing, curly-browed, annoying, insulting person, Zoro's mind would not stop the statement from repeating itself over and over again, engraving itself into his brain….

_"y'know that cocky attitude is gonna be the end of you"_

…fucking know-it-all.

"Shit, fucking watch where you're shooting! You could have shot me!"

"S-sorry boss!"

"Che, I'll have to send for reinforcements. Damn Roronoa, causing me trouble, even in his last moments."

"O-oi, you alive?….Shit! Sir Crocodile this guy needs to see a doctor!"

"Yes, yes fine, there should be a car arriving soon, put him in there"

"Yes sir!"

A heavy foot landed on Zoro's back and he was pushed onto the freezing ground with no regard to his injuries. Zoro let out a shameful cry of pain as Crocodile grinded his foot into one of the bullet holes.

"You just stay there and bleed Roronoa, it'll all be over soon."

Zoro still had no idea what was going on, but after a few seconds he felt like something was missing from his side, an absence of something that he held so dearly. Shit! His swords!

Fuck get up, he told himself. Get the fuck up or it's all over. He tried to move his arms, oh fuck he tried so hard to move his arms but his body refused to respond. Had it decided to betray him as well?

"Tch, I suppose I'll have to do everything mys…" Crocodile's voice faded away.

Zoro could at least feel the cold touch of the soft snow as it landed on his skin, at least he could still feel the warmth of the blood that oozed out from underneath him. Zoro didn't think there would be much difference between having his eyes closed, and having them open, it would still be the same depressing dark abyss. The pain was dulling slightly, could he get up again? Wait, no…he could just stay here for a bit…damn he was getting sleepy…perhaps he needed a nap…yeah…that's what he needed…

…just…

…for a few…

…

… minutes…

…

…

…

"Oiiiii..."

…

Who…

"Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

…

Who was that?...Had the thugs come back to finish him off? Come back to place the gun right next to his skull and blow his brains out? Damn, Zoro couldn't die like that. Lying face down on a cold, grubby back alley where the rats would pick at his cold dead corpse until morning, that was no way to die, no honour in that…

…but…wait… there was something he noticed about the voice he had heard, something about the aloofness and the warmth found within the voice that convinced Zoro he knew who the person was because…he had heard that voice just a few seconds ago.

"Kicking the can already, shithead? That's a shame, I wanted to at least see that three-sword style of yours before you died. Hey, maaaaarrimooo?"

Yes, he definitely knew who that was. Zoro put all of his remaining energy into lifting his head up to see the annoying bastard towering over him, wearing the same clothes since he last saw him, smirking like he didn't require any convincing to know that he was better than Zoro. His mocking stance sent bursts of irritation flowing through his veins and Zoro felt a little bit of his energy return. What the hell was he doing here?

"What... the fuck... do you want, haa haa…shitty hobo…" he managed to spit out between heavy pants. Every single inhale and exhale felt like the equivalent of pushing an impossibly heavy weight up and down, it hurt so damn much.

"Well", Sanji said as he started to swing back and forth on his heels whilst looking around the alley with curiosity, "I just thought I might tell you that those thugs will be coming back anytime soon with a nice fresh body bag, so you might wanna pick your sorry ass up and get out of here, pronto"

"haa…haa…believe me, if I could I would have done so already, but if you couldn't tell, I've been shot…twice…"

"Aaaah yeah I did notice that, man that's a lot of blood for one marimo" The shitty-blonde leaned in slightly and made an unimpressed face when he saw the bloody bullet holes. As if that wasn't an interesting enough sight, he then walked over to an open dumpster that took up nearly half of the alleyway and peered in.

"Ooh look what I found! Oi marimo! You might wanna check this out, I'm pretty these are your swords."

"What!" Seriously? Crocodile had just thrown them in with the trash? Thank fuck! Zoro thought he'd lost them forever.

"Are they okay? Fuck, don't tell me they're broken!"

"I dunno, why don't you come over here and see for yourself?"

Zoro hated to admit it, but the blonde was right, he had to move from where he was lying. The areas where Zoro had been shot screamed in pain when he tried to push himself up from the floor with his arms. He managed to push himself onto all fours but his body refused to move any further. A horrific dizzying spell took control of Zoro and commanded him to close his eyes and use the last of his energy to stop himself from throwing up, and he gladly obeyed.

"Is that it? Oh great swordsman? I'm not surprised. You couldn't even cross a road, why would I think you could get up after being shot and kicked to the floor like a piece of shit."

It was warm. The new power surging through his veins was so warm and so welcome to his tired body. His limbs felt less heavy, breathing felt less painful, even the pain had somehow receded away enough so that it was easy to push to the back of his mind. This new power, surely it had to be…anger.

"What did you say? You fucking curly-browed freak!" Zoro felt like his body was simply levitating away from the blood soaked ground, higher and higher he climbed until he was standing fully upright. His legs wobbled like crazy when he walked just 5 steps over to the dumpster and his hand reached out to hold on to the edge of it for support. Zoro peered in to see his precious swords lined neatly next to each other, safe, not broken and within his reach.

The blonde then jumped into the dumpster himself and looked at Zoro expectantly.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought I told you already, those idiots will be coming back in about hmm 5 seconds…don't you think it would be a good idea to, I dunno, hide?

"But why are you-"

"5…4…"

"Shit" Zoro whispered as he lifted his leg slowly over the edge of the dumpster and fell unceremoniously into a heap of bin bags. The movement shook the dumpster and was enough to cause the lid fall down by itself. Inside the dumpster, it was pitch black and the stench was so stifling that Zoro pinched his nostrils and only took in small breathes via his mouth. He could feel the hilts of the swords sticking into his back but he felt happy just knowing that they were there next to him.

"…1"

"Wha- WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?"

"What do you mean sir?"

"Don't play fucking dumb! Roronoa! Where is he?!"

"Urr I-I don't know sir!"

"Well he couldn't have gone fucking far, could he? You fucking shot him twice! Look at how much blood he's lost!"

"W-what should we do boss!"

"Shit, let's just get outta here. He won't last long and even if he does, he'll know what'll happen if he ever messes with us again! You! Get my car ready, we're getting out of here! And make sure that 23 million is kept safe!"re getting out of here!"in! You. You. get ". Look at how much blood he'

"Yes sir!"

The sound of retreating footsteps left Zoro utterly shocked. That was it? They were just gonna leave, when he was practically right next to them? What fucking idiots.

"Is the coast clear?" Zoro whispered.

"How the fuck should I know?" Sanji said in a much louder and more obvious tone.

"Damn shitty blonde, making me…" Zoro mumbled and complained as he pushed the lid up. There really was no-one there. Zoro looked around the alleyway. It wasn't dead ended; the alleyway snaked around the building and probably opened up onto another road, hopefully a busy one.

Zoro expected to see the blonde standing right there next to him but he had just disappeared. Where did he go?

"Damn blonde going on without me" Zoro fastened the swords back in their proper place, slid out of the dumpster clumsily and leant against the brick wall. He had just enough energy to stop himself from falling flat onto his face, but walking was the real task. His feet scraped along the floor as he dragged his hands further along the wall.

When he reached the end of the alleyway, he was relieved to see a main road full of busy traffic. And in front of him leaning on a bus stop sign was the blonde, smoking a cigarette. Zoro was confused however when he saw the blonde wearing a hat and a different colour shirt. Sure they weren't massive differences but why in the hell would he change? And Zoro was pretty sure the blonde wasn't wearing that fedora hat before.

"Hey"

The blonde looked up with a confused expression on his face and then a surprised one when he caught sight of Zoro.

"Marimo? What are you doing her-oh my god!" All the blood from the blonde's face seemed to vanish when he saw the blood stains all over Zoro's t-shirt. It seemed the effects of the boost of energy had finally run out as Zoro felt his entire body become like lead. His eyes drooped and his body convulsed from the new nauseous threat that consumed him. The last thing Zoro saw before he finally let go and passed out was Sanji's trembling hands reaching out to catch him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hmmm I wonder what'll happen next time? Stay tuned :P

P.S The fanfiction author Aevium and tumblr user zoroissexy have joined forces and have decided to create their own doujinshi scanlating group. They are mainly concentrating on Zosan doujinshi which is great news! If you are interested please follow the tumblr account high-night and all the information is there.


	5. Chapter 5

Hurray for fast updates! Woohoooo etto I don't have much to say this week hmmm well I'm on a break from school so that's always helpful. Time to cram in as many chapter updates as possible before I become busy again :P As a heads up I probably won't be updating any chapters in May or June as that is the time for my a level exams D: so scary hehe let's hope I can produce a lot of chapters before then eh? Ooh I guess I'll say that if you follow me on tumblr at .com I'll post links for any chapter updates as soon as they are released and I mainly reblog and occasionally post zosan and some other shizzle. Plus if you follow me I promise to follow back :P I'm also looking for a piece of artwork to use as the fic's book cover so if any of you are interested in that PM me or contact me on deviantart and I'm called MuffinGirlBethan on that as well, I really like that username huh :') or post it on tumblr and tag it as muffingirlbethan

Remember to fav follow and review (omg you guys I love reviews they are like internet hugs 3). Any critique about grammar, pacing, characterization, etc. is always welcome as well.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Haa haa…..wait!...fucking…wait up!...shit….slow down…haa…for one…..second!"  
Fuck! Why wouldn't they stop? Don't they realise that he's right behind them, shouting like a fucking maniac?  
"Haa haa…fucking stop for fuck's sake…oof!" Dammit he needed to stop walking into doors like they weren't there. Sanji rubbed his nose that collided with another swinging door and kept staggering towards the distant group of doctors and nurses. There were about 8, no maybe 10 of them all crowded around the unconscious green haired man who had been transferred from the ambulance onto a gurney.

It had been fucking horrible inside the claustrophobic ambulance, where he had no choice but to just sit and watch Zoro lose about a gallon of blood while the EMT's tried to prevent any more from escaping. Sanji felt bad for whoever had to clean the ambulance after, the amount of blood splattered everywhere made it look like a fucking crime scene inside. Sanji had already received copious amounts of blood stains on his shirt when the critically injured man decided to fall flat on his face in front of him. Sanji was initially in a sort of petrified state when he saw the amount of blood that was slathered all over the marimo, but his natural reflexes kicked in as soon as he saw the idiot just completely lose consciousness and start to fall. He landed flat on his ass when he couldn't quite support the other man's weight, and had no other choice but to cushion the fall.

Yeah, that was horrible, but this…this was just…god…fucking terrifying. Before he'd been fine with hospitals, he'd spent a lot of time in one when he was a kid. But now, well now it was different. He could feel everyone's eyes watching him, analysing him, trying to figure him out and the fact that they were all doctors made it even more terrifying for Sanji. The smell of antiseptic, the clean white walls, the security guards, it all sent emergency alarms ringing in Sanji's head telling him to get the fuck out of there. But he wasn't going anywhere, oh no, he had to stay here no matter what, and he needed to catch up with that damn gurney.  
But ever since he had gotten out of the ambulance and rammed his way through the hospital entrance doors, his legs had started to feel all numb and funny and his head was blurry and disorientated. Even as he walked like he had no bones in his legs, he had his arms sprawled across the white walls to help guide him forward, keeping his eyes open too much just served to further disorientate him. What was happening to him? Was this what happens when you're in a state of shock? Fuck that, yes he was shocked so to speak, but not so much that it made him feel like this.

Sanji came to a halt, took a short breather and opened his eyes fully to see that the crowd of people around the gurney had also come to a stop. Good, now he could finally catch up to them. The walls and corridors whizzed past him in a fuzzy blur, and the white from the walls and floor mixed with the green of the pot plants along with the colours of every other object in the hospital corridor to create a watercolor effect that swirled around him like an angry vortex. Holy shit, he must be walking really fucking fast!

No…wait, if he was walking fast,...why did his contrasting black legs look like they weren't moving at all? And how come the group of doctors up ahead looked like a tiny speck in his vision? Wait, oh god now everything was fucking fading away, was there something wrong with his eyes?

Now all he saw was just pure white light, the same thing you see for a few seconds when you get punched really hard in the face. But the real world, reality, was refusing to appear again in his vision. Sanji couldn't even feel or recognise his surroundings, couldn't even tell if he was even fucking standing up anymore.

Ah! Wait! Yes, yes he could feel something now, several things in fact. Two figures, he was assuming people, two figures and they were close to him, really close in fact (please let them be beautiful nurses 3!). His feet, they felt like they were brushing against something lightly, the floor?

"...u...im...the...air..." Man that was a squeaky voice, a kid?

"es...tor...Chopper" …...Chopper...chop-pa?...Chopper!? That kid, the kid with the squeaky voice!? The kid in the apartment, the kid in the same apartment as the marimo!

A gleam of orange/yellow light broke through the white dimension his brain seemed to have slipped him into, but disappeared as quickly as it came. Sanji slowly but daringly opened his eyes and saw Chopper's big doe like eyes in front of him, looking at him with concern.

"Sanji? Can you hear me? Follow my finger okay?"

Sanji really just didn't know what the fuck was going on so he just looked at the tiny moving finger. The same bright yellow light shone in his one uncovered eye again and Sanji realised that the source of the light came from the pen looking thing Chopper was holding in his other hand.  
"Chopper, w-what the fuck's goin on?" Sanji managed to say, but it came out in a dreadful slur.  
"It's okay Sanji, just take nice calm breathes. You just passed out for a minute that's all."  
He could see everything much more clearly now. Behind Chopper he could see a very busy reception area, and looking down he discovered that he was now seated on a very soft and comfy chair.  
Sanji held onto Chopper's arms that were placed upon his shoulders and used them to try and heave himself up.  
"Passed out?" Chopper's hands clutched his shoulders tighter and he gently but firmly pushed Sanji back into the chair.

"No, no, no Sanji, you can't move yet okay? Just bend forward and put your head between your knees, that will help the blood rush to your brain"

Sanji gladly obliged and Chopper shifted so that one hand rested on his shoulder. On top of the disorientation, Sanji couldn't even think properly thanks to the nausea that had begun to plague his body. But as soon as he bent his head down and breathed calmly, the ringing in his ears began to fade and he could literally feel the blood flow back into his face and warm up his pale skin.

"Better?" Sanji nodded slowly.

"Good, just stay there until you feel bette- ah thankyou very much. Have you had any food today Sanji?" Sanji hesitated for second, but shook his head.

"That's probably why you passed out. You need to take more care of yourself okay? Sit up for a second, slowly!" Chopper gently placed an oxygen mask over Sanji's mouth and nose when he rose back up to lean against the wall.

"Just take nice slow breathes of that and you'll feel much better, I'm gonna take care of you, so don't worry"

The sweet oxygen that he breathed in tasted clean and refreshing and it worked to unclog the broken down mechanisms within his clouded brain.

"T-take of care of me?...Wait… no...shit!" Sanji ripped off the mask and turned to Chopper with frantic eyes.

"No no no no, no you need to take care of Zoro, he's the one that needs looking after not me!"

"Eh? Zoro? W-what's wrong with him?"

"...I..." Sanji eyes dropped to the white floor, "This may come as a shock to you but...he's been shot"

"Sh-shot? He's never been shot before..." Sanji was surprised by the small teenager's response, he was expecting a surprised gasp and wide eyes, but he was shown neither.

"Before?"

"Mm he's a regular at this hospital, always getting cuts and scrapes from fights he's involved in. There was this one time last year when he got really badly injured but...no he's never been shot before"

Sanji grabbed onto Chopper's arms and looked him straight in the eye.

"Chopper, please, you have to save him okay? You have to go wherever he's going and fix him okay?"

"Eh, I-"

"Please! You have to! I don't know why but I just figure that if you help him, if a friend helps, he'll definitely make it!"

"Sanji this hospital is made up equally qualified doctors who are perfectly cap-"

"PLEASE! Please goddammit don't let him fucking die!"

Chopper looked down at Sanji, who was now clasping onto the small doctor's white coat with shaking hand. His stern eyes met with Sanji's desperate ones and he turned to ask the nurse standing close by to fetch a glass of water.

"Well?" Sanji asked. Chopper patted him on the shoulder and gave a reassuring smile.

"I'll see what I can do. Just stay here and let the nurses look after you"

"Yes I will, just please save him!"

Chopper didn't respond and instead walked silently and swiftly past him, heading in the direction of where the marimo had been taken. Sanji bent his back forward and leaned his forehead against his clenched hands. Oh god please don't die, he thought. Please don't let another person die because of him.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zoro opened up his heavy eyelids and couldn't make out much of what was in front of him. He could tell that the room was dark and that it wasn't his own, the ceiling was tiled and made out of cheap plastic. It took him longer than he would have liked for him to turn his head to the side to spot a few beeping monitors and an IV. So, he was in a hospital huh? He recognized the room he was in; it was a private room that he probably wouldn't even be in without the help of Chopper and his connections. It had been a whole year since he had last woken up in this place, but he didn't feel as bad as he did then. Getting shot twice couldn't even compare to nearly getting cleaved in two.

Zoro looked down to see that his left arm was in a sling and so used his other arm to heave himself up into a sitting position. Zoro groaned loudly when he felt a sting of pain in his shoulder and ribs. Man, they got him good. Just when he started to feel around his ribs for any scars, the door opened to reveal a very small doctor cast in dark shadow.

"Yo Chopper"

"How are you feeling Zoro?" Chopper asked while flicking on the lights. Zoro shielded his eyes from the sudden change and blinked away dark spots that had filled his eyes.

"Okay I guess, what's the damage report?"

Now that Zoro could see Chopper, he realised that the young doctor's body looked exhausted and heavy and his eyes weren't filled with the bright glow of youth that Zoro was so used to seeing.

"We managed to remove the bullet from your shoulder and stitched that up," Chopper mumbled darkly. "The bullet managed to puncture your left scapula, err your shoulder blade, but the bone should heal back over time." Chopper paused to sigh tiredly and shuffled a bit on his feet.

"The second bullet wound was harder to deal with, the...the bullet went through your ribs and came close to hitting your stomach. We…we had to do a blood transfusion and treated you for peritonitis."

Fuck, he hated cracked ribs. The morphine and painkillers they gave him must have been pretty strong; otherwise he'd be feeling excruciating pain every time he breathed.

"How long have I been asleep?"

Chopper rubbed his neck and looked at the clipboard in his other hand for distraction, "um two days"

"What? I thought I they wake me up after surgery?"

"Well I asked them to sedate you. I remember last year as soon as you woke up you were roaming around the hospital complaining that you were bored and the next thing I knew you had opened up your stitches and caused an infection."

"Hm fair enough. When can I take this annoying sling o-"

"DAMN YOU ZORO!"

Zoro immediately shut up and looked over to the trembling doctor who had thrown the clipboard onto the floor in anger. Zoro was shocked; he'd never heard the small teenager raise his voice before.

"…Chopper?"

Chopper face was drenched in tears and his bottom lip trembled, what was wrong with him?

"Why are you always so reckless!? Why do you have to get yourself hurt all the time!? And why are you so relaxed about all of this!?" Chopper wiped at his tears frantically.

"Hey Chopper, look it's no big deal"

"No big deal! Do you have any idea what your body has been through!? Do you have any idea what I…what_ I've _beenthrough! I had to remove bullets from my own friend's body and I had to listen to the other surgeons whisper "He might not make it"! Do you have any idea how that feels Zoro!?"

Zoro lifted away the thin bed sheet and dangled his feet over the side. He was a little wobbly when he stood up but managed to walk just fine across the room to kneel in front of the wailing teenager.

"Hey"

Chopper looked at him with watery, brown eyes.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, this was my fault, I was selfish and stupid, and I'll never do anything like that again okay?"

Chopper's tears stopped falling and his convulsive sniffing died down.

"Plus, it'll take a lot more than a stupid gun to bring _me _down. Though I gotta say it's pretty cool you were the one who removed the bullets, must've been pretty hard. But there's nothing you can't do right Dr Chopper?"

"D-d-don't compliment asshole! I-it won't make me happy, ya bastard" Chopper squeaked while performing a bashful dance. Zoro smiled and ruffled the teenager's hair.

"Has anyone come to visit?"

"Eh…no I remember what happened last time and I haven't told anyone. But you do realize I'll have to tell them soon, right?"

"Yeah…I know" Instead of visiting in singles, his friends preferred to visit him as a whole group whenever he was in hospital, which always meant trouble.

"Oh! Sanji's here though!"

"…Sanji?"

"Mm, I heard he came with you in the ambulance and has stayed in the hospital ever since. Just an hour ago he took your wallet and said he'd keep it safe for you, isn't that nice of him!"

Poor Chopper, sometimes he was too innocent for his own good. Theft aside, knowing that the cook was in the hospital was the best thing he could ask for in this moment in time. Now he could actually get a tonne of information about Mihawk and hopefully, his luck might finally turn around.

"I think I might have an idea where that idiot might be," Zoro said while standing up.

Chopper lifted his arms up, "Where do you think you're going!"

"I'm going to the canteen"

"No Zoro! You promise me you'll stay in b-"Chopper's pager interrupted him and he looked at it in annoyance.

"Dammit I have to go! Don't you dare leave this room Zoro, okay!"

"Okay, okay"

Chopper picked up his clipboard and rushed out of the room and made sure to slam the door on his way out.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zoro couldn't count the number of doctor's/nurses who had turned to gawk at him as he walked past. Whether it was because of his unusual hair colour or the fact that he had walked down the same corridor a million more times than it was necessary for him to figure out which way the canteen was. Zoro didn't know which of the two it was, nor did he care. All he cared about was fucking finding the damn place and finding that shitty little blonde.

"_C'mon you shitty marimo, I'm not gonna stay if you're gonna take any fucking longer to find me. Is it actually impossible for you to walk down a straight corridor?"_

"Shut up…" Zoro grumbled at the imaginary image of the curly-freak smirking down at him that his brain thought best to conjure up at that moment.

Cocky little son-of-a-bitch, he could find the canteen perfectly fine; all the morphine and sedatives were just mucking up his brain is all.

Another five minutes of trawling around whilst dragging his IV with him and Zoro finally found the set of double doors that led into the canteen. When he pushed open the doors, he found it to be very quiet and very empty save for a few people: an old couple sitting in the corner slurping tea, one short and aged looking dinner lady and thankfully, the thief himself, Sanji dressed in hopefully borrowed green scrubs.

If he could, he would have shouted at the top of his lungs as many swear words as possible, when he saw that the shit-cook had covered a complete canteen table with plates and bowls filled with food. Currently the thin blonde was reaching across the table in different directions with his little plastic fork, shovelling as much food as he could into his still chewing mouth. It was the spitting image of Luffy.

But as soon as Sanji turned his head to see Zoro slowly edging toward him, he could not contain himself any longer. After seeing Sanji's eyes nearly pop out of their sockets added with the resemblance he shared with a hamster storing its food in its cheeks, Zoro nearly fell over when he started to laugh uncontrollably. He laughed so hard that the pain in his ribs and shoulder became a dull and trivial ache and a flood of warmth spread through his body. At first he was shocked at the sound of his own laughter, he was only used to light chuckles and snorts but he didn't mind it, it sounded more natural than he would have ever guessed. As he lifted his head he could just make out through watery eyes the blonde rolling his eyes as he turned back to his colossal meal. He should feel fucking lucky, Zoro thought. He was probably the first person to ever hear that laugh, aside from himself of course.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"So," Sanji said after swallowing a huge mouthful of God knows what, "you here to thank me marimo?" He raised his eyebrow and looked expectantly at Zoro.

"You wish curly-brow"

Sanji clicked his tongue, reached across the table and dove his fork into nearly every one of the bowls, pulling out beans, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, god just anything that he could fill his fucking stomach with, and shovelled it all into his gob in one massive pile. It was disgusting yes, most of what he was eating tasted like it had been cooked with 5 tubs of lard, but it was warm, there was lots of it, and most importantly, it was all for him.

"Tch, you really are an ungrateful bastard..."

Zoro rested his cheek on his elbow that he had propped up onto the table and stared uninterestedly at Sanji's scoffing with a dull, tired expression on his pale face.

"When was the last time you ate?"

Sanji struggled to swallow down an especially large mouthful of food and grabbed his cup of black coffee and swallowed nearly half in order to help him gulp down the horrible ball of food that was brewing in his cheeks.

"Urrr… the last time I ate was about…err three days after you last saw me."

"What the… that was like, nearly ten days ago"

"H-holy shit! You can count?" Zoro's relaxed, lazy face screwed up in annoyance at the insult and he growled like a pissed off dog. Man, insulting this idiot was just too fucking easy.

"Fuck you, you little prick. What the hell happened to that money I gave you?"

Sanji looked to the side sheepishly and scratched his cheek, "Oh…that…err…well…it kind of…got… stolen."

"…..what?"

"It got stolen"

"By who?"

"Other homeless people, duh!" Sanji said obviously.

"Well why the fuck didn't you fight back!"

Sanji rolled his eyes in exasperation, "I wouldn't expect an empty-headed marimo like you to understand."

Zoro huffed in annoyance, "Whatever, curly…"

"Huh? What the fuck did you call me?"

"Oh and one more thing, I don't know if you have kleptomania or something, but that wallet in your pocket, that belongs to me, not you. Hand it over". Zoro stuck out his hand and clicked his fingers impatiently.

"Well, well, well marimo, counting, using big words, they must have used some seriously strong morphine on you," Sanji snickered while reaching around into his back pocket and handed over the marimo's oh-so-precious wallet.

"Shut up you bastard, be grateful that I'm not asking you to pay me back."

Sanji decided against carrying on the tennis match of insults and kept silent and ate more slowly than before. A comfortable silence blanketed over both of them, a silence which neither one of them felt the need to break because the obligation to prevent awkward tension seemed impossible to arise.

But for Sanji, guilt was slowly starting to creep back into his mind. He was digging at the marimo because he didn't want to refer to or touch upon any sensitive subjects that were probably best forgotten about, but there was no use in trying to avoid it. Sure the idiot was up and walking around as if he hadn't been fucking shot TWICE, but there was always that one horrific outcome that might have happened if Sanji wasn't waiting at that bus stop. Zoro could have, no…he probably _would_ have died.

Why did he feel guilty? Because there was a large probability that the reason Zoro was shot was because of _him_. He fucking needed to know, he needed to know who shot Zoro and whether he himself was really to blame. If the people Sanji was suspecting don't turn out to be the attempted murderers, then… then maybe the heavy weight of guilt and worry that had been plaguing his mind the past two days would be lifted.

"Alright cook, I'm only gonna say this once so listen up."

Sanji snapped out of his little daydream and looked back to see Zoro bending his head forward to lean against the table top in a weird sort of bow gesture.

"W-what are you-"

"Thankyou for saving my life"

Sanji stared at the patch of moss that the idiot called "hair" for a few seconds before staring into brown serious eyes once Zoro lifted his head to survey Sanji's dumbfounded face. His eyes didn't break contact when he fumbled around his chest instinctively searching for a breast pocket. He finally forfeited the staring contest when he looked down to see that he wasn't even wearing his own suit anymore and did a waving-off motion with his other hand.

"Don't worry about it marimo. Besides it was the doctors who saved you, not me. I was just in the right place at the right time."

"Wait…what?"

"…what?"

"What the fuck were you doing down a dark and narrow alleyway? Trying to find a place to sleep?"

"Alleyway?" Sanji shoved a forkful of cold pasta into his mouth and spoke with his mouth full, "what the hell are _you_ talking about?" He paused to swallow, "All I remember is enjoying a fucking amazing cigarette a passer-by had kindly given to me, and then all of a sudden you come stumbling out from behind a building, covered in blood and bullet-holes, it was quite a sight."

Zoro looked beyond confused; in fact if they weren't talking about such a serious subject, Sanji would be been in stitches by now. It looked like his eyes couldn't choose whether to look left or right and he kept rubbing his mouth like some kind of bizarre attempt to help him figure out the problem.

"No…no, no, no that can't be right," Zoro muttered to himself while shaking his head, "y-you, you're the one that's wrong, okay?...I know what I saw. If this is some kind of fucking joke, I suggest you come clean now, before I start getting really pissed off."

Sanji slammed his fork down and scowled. "Listen to me when I fucking say this you dull fuck. I have no idea what you're talking about. All I remember is waiting by a bus stop and then seeing you come out from behind some building."

The marimo let out an annoyed huff, cupped his forehead into his hands and started rocking back and forth. He was angry, Sanji could tell, but he had no idea why.

"Look maybe the morphine is messing with your head, or maybe it was the shoc-"

Zoro snapped his head up to look Sanji in the eye. "NO! Okay I know what I saw…I know what I fucking saw…"

Sanji couldn't help but feel slight pity when he looked into the marimo's eyes and found a small glimpse of despair, which was almost completely obscured by determination and anger.

Sanji breathed through his nose calmly, "Okay, okay…I'll…humour you I guess. You seem to be under the impression that I apparently "saved" you down some alleyway. Care to elaborate on this little daydream?"

Zoro scratched his head roughly, and leaned his crossed arms upon the table top.

"When I…when I got shot and was pretty much left to die, I was almost about to close my eyes and take a nap, but your annoying voice stopped me. I had no idea why you were there, standing in front of me, and for some reason you didn't sound or appear to be that bothered about the fact that I was lying in a pool of my own blood. Then, and I'd really appreciate it if you explained this, you somehow knew when Croc- the people who shot me were coming back. You managed to show me where my swords had been hidden, which was in the dumpster that we then used to hide from the bastards who had come back to collect my body. Dumb fucks didn't even think to search the alleyway when they realised I wasn't where they left me, and just panicked and made a run for it. Now this probably sounds weird, but when the shooters left, you just…disappeared, like…kind of vanished into thin air. I was so fucked up I just thought I was too slow and you had just gone ahead without me. And this is where it gets really weird. When I got out of the alley and onto the main street, I saw you wearing different clothes and a urr… what was it again… oh yeah this fedora hat. And that time when I called out to you, the fact that I was nearly bleeding to death looked like it _definitely_ did bother you. And then shortly after that…I guess I must have…fallen asleep or something."

Wow, what a story. The end part sounded right but everything before that, yeah that was bullshit. Although, Sanji thought it did sound a little _too_ detailed for Zoro to have simply made up, considering the fact that he didn't exactly look like the most creative guy in the world, and that his brain was probably too full of his massive ego to even fit in an imagination.

"Sooo…basically you're saying that if I hadn't shown up as, let's say, this kind of illusion as it were …you…would have died?"

Zoro didn't look up when he nodded his head gently.

"Huh…that's…odd I guess"

Zoro inhaled deeply and loudly through his nose, "Yeah, it is that"

"And you said I was wearing different clothes?"

"Well, yeah when I saw you in the alleyway you were wearing pretty much the exact same thing when I first met you"

"Ah! So it's that then!" Sanji said, while clapping his curled up fist against his palm.

"Huh?"

"Well, there's this thing I've read about that, when some people think they are about to die, a friend or family member will appear before them as a sort of "guardian angel" in order to protect them from death that was trying to claim them"

"And you think that's what happened."

"Well, that's the only explanation _I _can come up with"

"But why did _you_ show up?"

"I'm guessing you're not that good at giving compliments. Just a hunch"

"You know what I mean…why would a stranger who I met briefly 2 weeks ago appear as a, what did you call it, a "guardian angel"? Surely someone who I knew pretty well or someone who was important to me would have…shown… up…"

Sanji shrugged "That's something you have to figure out for yourself marimo. In the meantime, my blood sugar is running pretty low and I spot a cake that's got my name on it. You want anything?"

"Huh?...oh…nah…you're alright…" Zoro mumbled while looking despondently past Sanji's shoulder.

Sanji had a nice stretch and yawn before sliding out of the chair and making his way over to the food counter where the exhausted old dinner lady was standing behind. Her gloomy mood didn't change when Sanji approached and just said "Can I get you anything?" in a melancholic tone.

"Excuse me mademoiselle but are you by chance the one who made this beautiful looking cake?"

The old lady looked up in surprise and stuttered slightly "E-eh? Um…yes"

Sanji smiled charmingly, bent down and tapped the glass stand that contained the moist chocolate cake, "You see, I'm a chef, and I can tell you, I'd be more than willing to sell this in a 5 star restaurant," Sanji paused while he stood back up, "I'm hoping it tastes as good as it looks, I can tell you've put a lot of time and effort into making this cake look as mouth-watering as possible."

The old lady's pale, grey skin turned extremely pink, almost red and she tucked back some of her greasy strands of hair behind her ear. "Oh you old charmer," she chuckled, "that's probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me in months, no…years even. Tell you what…" she bent down and lifted a big slice of the cake onto a nice clean plate and handed it and a fork to Sanji, "…have this on the house."

If Sanji's hands weren't full he would be waving his hands frantically "Oh no no no I couldn't possibly-"

The old woman shook her head "I've already decided so I can't take it back. Please, enjoy it" The old lady smiled lovingly and warmly.

Sanji looked down at the cake, "…Thank you very much", he said very slowly and smiled one of his sweetest smiles. He swivelled around gracefully on his feet and saw the marimo staring into space with his hand covering his mouth. He looked so…troubled…yes that was the best word for it, troubled and perhaps, a little distraught? Sanji didn't really want to go and sit back down next to him again; he didn't know what would happen if he broke the marimo out of his little daze, he was obviously brooding over something.

Sanji clicked his tongue and strode back over to the table. He was fucking there first, he wasn't moving just because the marimo was being a moody so and so.

Zoro didn't say a word when Sanji sat back down, but when he started to tuck into his dessert, the troubled man's eyes flickered to just stare down at the cake. Sanji ignored him and instead just ate loudly and obnoxiously in order to pester the marimo and hopefully change the awkward atmosphere.

But Zoro just kept silent, with his hand over his mouth and just kept staring at the disappearing cake. After a few minutes, Sanji tapped the fork against the plate loudly and said "You want some or what?"

The marimo-head finally looked up and breathed in sharply. "Oh…nah…you're alright"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong…fucking shit-cook…" Zoro rubbed the back of his neck, "…it's just…I mean why the FUCK would _you_ appear, seriously! I mean I know fuck all about you, y'know?"

Sanji shrugged, "You never asked"

"What?"

"You fucking never asked, so how _would _you know anything about me"

"Oh…well, yeah I _know_ b-but remember! You said that the less I know about your life the better, am I right?"

"…fair point"

"Good"

Sanji scraped together the remainders of the cake into one forkful of chocolatey goodness and swallowed the lot. It was a good cake, but not perfect. However he could tell that with training and practice, there was no doubt it could become something spectacular. The kind lady's skills were indeed wasted here.

Sanji wiped his mouth with a serviette before raising his index finger in the air.

"What?" Zoro questioned.

"I ask you one question and you can ask me one. But don't you dare ask me about why I'm homeless cos I won't fucking answer."

"Wha-that's not fair!"

"What's your favourite food?"

"…what?"

"You deaf as well as dumb marimo-head? I said what's your favourite food?"

"I fucking heard you the first time! Ugh I dunno…I don't have one"

"What?! You must do, everyone does"

"Yeah well I don't"

"C'mon grumpy marimo, I know it's difficult for you to use your brain but just think of the one food that always manages to make you feel better, no matter what mood you're in. Think of the one food where, no matter how many times you eat it, it always tastes different and better than before"

"…..onigiri"

"A little louder cabbage-head"

"Onigiri"

"Oh! Those rice-balls from Japan?"

"Yep. Now it's my turn shit-cook"

"Fuck! Wait a sec will you-"

"3 months ago you were featured in a photograph that was printed on the front page of the Grandline times, which showed you and other chefs standing in front of a restaurant. Now the restaurant window had a fucking huge crack in it, so big that it was technically impossible that it was still in one piece. I only know one man in the entire world who is capable of something like that. So here's my question: Can you tell me everything about what happened that night and about the man known as Dracule Mihawk?"

….

Sanji narrowed his eyes and just kept silent for a few minutes. He quietly piled up the empty dishes into 3 stacks of food covered china and, after the table was cleared, leant his crossed arms in the edge of the table top.

"Why d'you wanna know?"

"…what?"

"Why the fuck do you want to know?"

"Oh no you don't shit-cook, we had a fucking deal, you've already asked me one question," Zoro said as he pointed his finger obnoxiously at Sanji's face.

"Ugh- mine was possibly the most trivial thing anyone could ask! You're asking me to divulge information about a life-threatening event and a person who may or may not come and kill me if I decide to rat on him. It's only fair that I should know the reason _why_ you want to know?"

Zoro let out an annoyed huff and the tension in his body simply disappeared causing it to just sag into a miserable pile of muscle. Sanji waited for the words "fair point" to come out of the marimo's discontented mouth, but it never did. It didn't matter though; it was the thought that counted.

"Take your time there moss-head"

….

"…so, you're not denying it didn't happen?"

"Oh well fucking done detective marimo, bit on the slow side aren't we?"

"Are you gonna fucking tell me or not!" The tension in Zoro's body returned and he seemed to rise back up like a pissed off king cobra, but it wasn't enough to intimidate Sanji.

"Nu-uh, you first"

Zoro clenched and unclenched his fists and his breathing became harsh and angry. After a few mutters of "fucking cook", "son-of-a-bitch" and "annoying curly bastard" he settled down and ran a hand through his green hair.

"Do you want the long story or the short one?" he mumbled.

Sanji put a finger to his lip, "Hmmmm, long please"

"You don't ask for much do you?" Zoro shook his head and looked down at his sling.

"Well I guess the best way to do this is to just start from the beginning I guess…..I…I grew up in a dojo…err a kind of err, a traditional Japanese training school. I learnt the arts of kenjutsu and kendo,… err basically swordsmanship. A-anyway, I was a cocky little shit when I was younger and I was always challenging anyone I'd come across, even the adults. But see, there was this one person, this one kid who, no matter how hard I tried, would always end up kicking my ass and defeating me without breaking a goddamn sweat. She…she was called Kuina and she was the dojo master's daughter." Zoro paused for a second to scratch at the back of head and chose to tell the rest of his story with his right arm resting on top of the table and his chin placed on top of it.

"Most people's childhoods were made up of meeting new friends, going to school, that kinda crap. Not for me though. All I remember from my childhood is waking up at five in the morning to lift weights and then spending every single minute I was awake, developing and perfecting my sword technique. It was like my only purpose in life was to defeat her. But no matter how hard I tried she always, always managed to defeat me…So then one night after losing to her for the 2000th time, I thought fuck it, I'll never defeat her if I don't get serious…

…so I challenged her to a dual with real swords….."

"Did you win?"

Zoro chuckled "Nope. She defeated me, yet again. Damn I remember being so…so fucking pissed off. No matter how much I trained and improved, she was always there to remind me that I could never become the best if I don't defeat her," Zoro sighed tiredly.

"So then, I start bawling like a fucking baby. As a kid, I guess I thought it would have made me feel better but it wasn't exactly helpful when the person who just defeated me was watching me cry my eyes out…But I stopped when I heard Kuina start to cry as well. I was surprised, no shocked even. Why the fuck was she crying, I thought. Why wasn't she giving her usual cocky victory speech? Then she starts spewing out all of this crap about her not being able to become the world's greatest swordsman cos she's a girl and how her father told her she'll soon become weaker when the rest of us when she starts to hit puberty. And boy did that make me angry as fuck"

"…why?"

"Why? That's exactly what she asked. So I lay it down straight for her, I say "Do you have any idea how much of an idiot I look when the person who just defeated me is just giving up because of what someone else told them? To defeat you is my ambition and you're saying that the day I finally manage to do it, it won't be because of my strength? That's bullshit"…

….And so we make a promise, one of us must become the world's greatest swordsman one day and we'll see who reaches the goal first"

"Wow, you and Kuina sound like you have a real solid friendship. Has she come to visit-"

"She died"

"…Eh?"

"She died the very next day. Tripped and fell down the stairs when fetching her sharpening block. Ironic really…when you think about it. That girl had the strength of 10 fully grown men, she was the strongest person I knew, and yet it was a flight of stairs that done her in" Zoro chuckled.

Sanji was slightly taken aback by Zoro's slightly sinister joke.

"After the funeral I visited her father in the dojo. I asked him for Kuina's sword , the white one that you saw in my bedroom."

"Ah, so that's why it was on a stand"

"Mm-hm. I tell him that I've decided to fulfil both Kuina's and my goal of becoming the world's greatest swordsman. He approves, hands over the sword and from that day forward I developed and perfected my own three sword style."

"So…I'm guessing Mihawk is the world's strongest swordsman."

"You catch on quick. The last time I saw him was about a year ago. We duelled, and I lost, horrifically. I'd show you the scar he gave me to prove just how strong this guy is, but this stupid gown opens at the back."

"What happened then?"

"Well, I was pretty fucked up after nearly being cleaved in two but I do remember Mihawk telling me this: he said that no matter how many months or years pass by, he'd always be waiting in this city. Waiting for me to surpass him."

Zoro sat up and stared deeply at his clenched hand, "And I'm ready now, now more than ever. It's just finding him that's the real fucking problem. That man is more elusive than the government. No-one knows where he is, and even if they do, they're too damn scared to say anything. The whole reason why I got shot was because, I was so damn desperate to find Mihawk, logic just didn't enter my mind when decided to strike a deal with the most untrustworthy man in the world."

"You got shot because of a deal?"

"Yep. 20 million berri in exchange for the location of Dracule Mihawk. Instead I ended up getting shot and the money was taken away from me from right under my nose. I still feel fucking humiliated."

Sanji felt his entire body relax and he subconsciously let out a massive sigh. Thank fuck, he thought.

There was no need for him to worry, Zoro got shot because of a mistake only _he_ had made and was just suffering the consequences. However Sanji found himself not feeling as satisfied as he originally thought he would. Why not? He knew it wasn't his fault that Zoro had been shot, there was no need to feel any guilt at all over what happened.

The story that had been told had sounded quite heartfelt and genuine. He could tell that the girl called Kuina was very important to Zoro and the fact that he was going through all this effort in order to fulfil their promise, showed how just much he cared for her. Sanji smiled. It was weird how much Zoro's oath and conviction reminded him of the relationship between himself and the shitty old man.

"Man that was an eventful night, so much happened in so little time that it was hard for us to believe that it even did happen."

Zoro's body immediately perked up and he leaned forward to listen attentively to Sanji's story.

"When we first opened the Baratie, me and Zeff I mean, we thought we had chosen a great location. It was on a busy street surrounded by offices and posh buildings and there were plenty of other restaurants close by that served as competition. But it seemed like the peaceful, safe atmosphere turned into the complete opposite come nightfall. Thugs and gangs from all over Grandline gathered in this one street to spend their drug money in places where they weren't welcome and harass innocent people. All the other shops and restaurant owners were too fucking scared to say anything when the bastards would threaten the employees with knives. Cowardly fuckers needed to be told who was fucking boss, and me and Zeff were the only ones who were capable of doing such a thing"

"Hold on, hold on, just to clarify, Zeff is?"

"Oh, just a shitty old man, but that's not important. Once we taught the thugs a lesson we thought that would be the end of it, but nope, it wasn't. Soon thugs started targeting our restaurant by smashing up the tables or beating up our customers. But we weren't gonna just sit there and watch as they destroyed our precious restaurant. So me and Zeff resorted to kicking the living shit outta these guys right in front of the customers. After a while even the other chefs joined in the ass kicking and the customers loved to cheer us on, so much so that most of the people that came to the restaurant only came for the fights, not the food."

Sanji sighed tiredly "Then…phew, then this wanna be asshole who we'd known for a real long time decided to rally an entire _army_ of assholes who were dumb enough to follow this guy's every order."

"Is that the guy who Mihawk defeated? Err…don…something errr Don Krieg?"

"That's the guy. Seems like he'd had enough of being humiliated by chefs and had decided to come and destroy the entire restaurant." Sanji leaned back slightly and spread his arms in the air.

"So picture this: on one side we have the hulking ape that is Don Krieg and about 50 of his followers behind him armed with knuckle dusters and baseball bats. And on the opposite side, me, Zeff and about 10 other chefs who are armed with knives and spatulas."

Zoro laughed "Man, you don't get to see that everyday"

"I know right? Anyways, so we're all just squaring off with each other when, suddenly this flash of light catches my eye and soon after follows this fucking powerful shockwave that manages to lift us all up off our feet. My head was spinning at the time and all I could hear where these muffled screams and crunching noises. When I sat back up all I saw were Don Krieg and his goonies lying on the floor out for the count. A few of them were cut up pretty bad but none of them were dead. But there was this one tall guy just standing in the middle of the street, holding this fucking huge ass sword. He was dressed too eccentrically to be one of Don Krieg's men, so I ask "Who the hell are you?", and he turns around and says-"

"Dracule Mihawk" Zoro murmured.

"You got it. The only thing he says after that is "I suggest you call the police" and then he just disappeared in the blink of an eye. We never saw him after that"

Zoro stared at him for a few seconds with the most dumbfounded face Sanji had ever seen.

"THAT'S IT?" he screeched.

"Well yeah, what were you expecting?" Sanji said innocently.

"I dunno, just more than fucking…THAT! I mean there must be more to it…like, why the fuck did he save you?"

"Technically he didn't save us"

"Okay but he was obviously on your side! Look I may have only met him once but I know this guy okay? And I know he wouldn't just decide to show up out of the blue and help out a couple of chefs!"

"For fuck's sake marimo I'm not lying to you okay! If there was more to the story I would have told you already? Just accept it and get over it!"

Zoro huffed in annoyance and looked to the side. He looked like a pissed off child being moody because he couldn't have what he wanted. Well it wasn't his fault, that's what really happened, one second Mihawk was there, the next gone.

"Have you ever thought about…y'know… giving up your dream?" Zoro's eyes immediately narrowed.

"What?"

"I mean you've nearly gotten yourself killed twice trying to achieve this goal, it's…it's a bit idiotic when you think about it…"

"Only I get to say if my dream is idiotic. I already knew the risks when I decided to fulfil both mine and Kuina's goal, in fact I threw away my attachment to life as soon as I held Kuina's sword"

Sanji didn't say anything for a while, just narrowed his eyes to counteract Zoro's angry ones.

"It's still idiotic…" He mumbled into his hand.

A long silence followed after his comment and each of the young men slouched in their seats as their minds were filled with their own troubling thoughts and ideas. Sanji looked over to the marimo for a second to see that his heavy head was being supported by his usable hand and his eyelids began to flutter slightly. Soon after that Zoro lay his cheek upon the table and closed his eyes. Sanji couldn't even believe the guy was even out of fucking bed let alone conscious, perhaps he swapped some of his brain cells for rapid healing powers.

….

….

"Hey marimo…you still awake?"

Zoro's head didn't move but he managed to produce a tired grumble which Sanji interpreted as a "yes".

"I…I've got a err… a bit of a confession to make"

The green head still didn't move, "okay…"

"See, the only reason why I stayed here, the only reason why I'm still sitting here right now is…because…I just needed to know who shot you…"

"…..okay…"

"…see the thing is…I thought I'd feel better once you told me who it was…"

"…'kay…"

"I…I had this horrid feeling that it was my fault you nearly got killed…I…I thought it was my fault because-"

Sanji's blurting was interrupted by the deafening gurgled noise that was Zoro's snoring. Just when he was about kick the thick-headed marimo across the face, he felt a soft hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Chopper smiling down at him with a wheelchair close by.

"I'm glad to see you paid attention to my advice" Chopper said, looking at the towers of empty dishes and plates.

"Oh…yeah, heh heh guess I won't be passing out again anytime soon" Sanji said while running a hand through his hair.

"Geez he's so stubborn, I don't know what he's going to be like in the next few weeks, the one thing Zoro hates the most is being stuck in a bed all day."

"If you want I could kick him to sleep"

"Err…n-no that won't be necessary…"

Chopper scooted off to the side, dragging the wheelchair with him. After shaking the sleeping cabbage patch awake, Chopper helped him into the wheelchair which Zoro insisted he "Didn't fucking need!". Sanji didn't say anything as Chopper walked past, pushing the half-conscious marimo out of the canteen.

He checked his watch…11.30. Meh that was okay, he didn't feel that tired yet. He probably couldn't sleep in an empty hospital bed like last night; the security guards were starting to look at him suspiciously. There should be a nice spot for him in the subway toilets. Sanji shuffled around in his pockets and felt the size and shape of the coins. Five berri…that should be enough for some rice.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Phew this chappie was fun to write! It was weirdly nice to write about how Sanji felt while passing out. I have a condition or weird phobia thing where I sometimes pass out at the sight or mention of blood so it was good being able to describe the feeling, having already experienced it many times before. Though I can't exactly say the same for my medical knowledge of bullet wounds :P I wanted to sound as realistic as possible but if anything sounds off or slightly exaggerated then do say so :P Keep a close eye for updates xx

Remember to put near the end Sanji felt terrible about only staying to find out who tried to kill Zoro.


	6. Chapter 6

What up yooo well well well here I am again with another chappie. I also have some news which is I got my exam results back and I got 2 B's yay soooo yeah just coursework now to get on with fun fun fun! Uhm I dunno if I should put some kind of warning on this chapter but if you are like a complete scaredy pants like me then I suggest not reading the first I guess, half, like in a pitch black room…yeah have fun reading!

Don't forget to follow, fav and review xxxxx!

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born-Len Wein

After staying for one full week in the hospital, Zoro couldn't stand it any longer. He was sick of all the needles his body was being pricked with, sick of just lying in a hospital bed doing nothing but stare at the wall, sick of nurses waking him up in the middle of the night just to check his temperature, the very _minute_ after he had finally been able fall asleep. He just wanted to get the fuck out of there and just go back to his apartment. Of course every time he asked if he was ready to leave, Chopper always gave him a funny looking scowl and berated him for half an hour about how the human body worked differently to how Zoro presumed it did.

Right now his ribs were still giving him a hard time and every time he inhaled or exhaled an annoying itchy feeling crawled up his side, nipping at his lungs and scratching at his healing bones. Although arm had been taken out of the sling, every time he leaned his weight onto it, a shot of pain would travel down his entire left side as a helpful reminder that it still wasn't ready to be used normally. He was hungry as well, he couldn't stand the god awful tripe that the hospital served him, and even though he ate up every last bit, it never even hit the bottom of his stomach. He earned for food, real food, real fucking tasty, warm, comforting food.

Zoro also had a horrible, never-ending headache that pestered him and his brain, but he knew that what was really pestering him and was probably the cause of the headache was the presence of his "uncle" who was sat too close to his bed at that moment. He wasn't there for a nice visit to see if Zoro was still alive, he was there to ask annoying questions about the incident. Zoro knew something like this was going to happen and he was fucking dreading it. Yes, he was the victim, but the events leading up to the attempted murder would probably land Zoro in a whole heap of trouble unless he could come up with a suitable excuse.

"Kid, stop fucking ignoring me and just answer my goddam questions!" Zoro's eye twitched with annoyance and he turned his head with a bored expression to look at Smoker tapping a pen against a blank notepad.

"I don't understand why you won't just fess up who it was. If we can catch this son-of-a-bitch then he's gonna be facing a fucking huge amount of jail time. Don't you want that? The person who _could_ have killed you, behind bars?"

"Look I really just don't give a shit at this point in time okay? I just want to get the fuck out of this hospital and back home so that I can just forget about everything that happened. No fuss, no bother."

"That may be so, but you do realise that I can't go back to my superiors with just a blank piece of paper. I requested that I be in charge of this case 'cos I know how much you hate talking to cops you don't know. I don't recall ever asking you for anything, so, just this once, will you answer these goddam questions…for me?"

Zoro regarded Smoker and looked over the stressed out man with wicked eyes. He fucking hated it when people guilt-tripped him into doing something he doesn't want to.

"Look I already told you, I didn't see the asshole's face"

"So, his face was covered?"

"No…I…they jumped me in this alley"

"They? There was more than one?"

Crap…"Err yeah must've been. All of a sudden this fire extinguisher blew up next to me and I couldn't see a fucking thing. As I turned away to leave, that's when I got shot in the back. It takes a pretty skilled person to pull off something like that on their own."

Smoker paused in his frantic scribbling to look up and ponder, "Hmm, yeah I suppose so. But answer me this kid. The ambulance team told me they found you in the Mock district and everyone, even civilians, knows that that place is notorious for being the criminal capital of Grandline. The streets are teaming with low-life scum and you were found suspiciously close to the one street where most illegal trading takes place." Smoker pulled his chair closer and leaned forward.

"Now you've gotta be honest with me here kid. What the hell were you doing in a place like that?"

Shit, he was onto him. Fuck, fuck, fuck why wasn't he smarter? Why couldn't he just think of a reasonable excuse? And he couldn't slide around the question; everything Smoker had said was true, and even Zoro would admit that his story sounded _very_ suspicious. But there was no way he was going to tell the truth. He had taken part in an _illegal_ underground fighting match and although the money he had won wasn't exactly for drugs, the fact that he had won the money as part of a deal with the very infamous crime lord "Mr 0", didn't exactly make him look even the slightest bit innocent.

"I…."

Smoker's eyebrows raised and he leaned over just a little bit more in anticipation of Zoro's important answer.

"The reason I was down that alley was…because…"

"Yeah?"

"I…..got….lost"

Smoker face palmed. "For fuck's sake Zoro."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zoro practically deflated and sunk back into the fat pillows as soon as he saw his uncle's back disappear behind the door. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples in a circular motion with his fingertips. _"I...got...lost"._ Such a fucking pathetic excuse, his head was still ringing from the sound of his brain screaming at him with embarrassment...but he'd endure any amount of humiliation if it meant he could avoid getting arrested.

Of course, Smoker couldn't leave without berating him about going to see a doctor to check if his poor directional sense was actually a mental illness that could hopefully be fixed. Zoro didn't listen to a word his uncle had to say, as per the usual. Rather he decided to just drown out Smoker's nagging and celebrated his own personal victory. How he was able to create a believable excuse to get himself out of such a dangerous situation so easily? He didn't have a clue, although he had a sneaking suspicion that it had a lot to do with luck. Pure, vital, unprecedented luck.

Zoro settled down deeper into the pillows and his eyes drifted around the private hospital room. Somehow, it always looked a lot emptier and bigger straight after someone had left the room and he was just left on his own to do fuck all. And sometimes, if he stared a little longer, and thought a little harder than usual, and felt like he could have been the only person left on the planet because of how quiet and still the room was, that was usually when she would appear.

Zoro didn't know of a better word to describe it, but it seemed that throughout the past several days, Kuina had been… "haunting" him. He still wasn't used to seeing her just appear out of nowhere, standing so close to him that if he reached out his hand he would be able to touch her cold, deathly pale skin. But whenever she did decide to appear she never stayed for long, a few seconds and that was it, she'd just vanish into thin air.

He could never say that she was annoying him per say, it was just that...well, a few times, she had chosen to make her presence known in...a very different sort of way. If Zoro hadn't developed his mind to never be intimidated by an enemy, if he didn't have nerves of steel, if he didn't have the ability to just look at someone in the eye and cause them to fall to their knees and cry like a baby...then perhaps he might admit that on a few occasions Kuina had possibly, may have...sort of...scared him...a little.

The first time wasn't so bad; Zoro had been tossing and turning in his sleep one night, so at one point when the annoying and persistent pain in his side became unbearable he just decided to wake up and just lie there. And as soon as he had come back to consciousness and red consiousness ed for too ppear opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was Kuina, standing in the corner of the pitch-black room, staring directly at him. But this time she looked horrifically different than usual. Her bright blue eyes had turned into bulging white ones, with no sign of any irises and just small black dots for pupils, her hair looked like it was matted together, probably with blood and he figured there must have been something stuck in her throat, judging by the sound of her gargled breathing.

She appeared again a few more times looking like that, looking like she was possessed by some kind of demon. One night, Zoro couldn't possibly find a way to order his body to stay asleep because of some weight he could feel on his lap. When he sat up, though his eyes were still blurry from just waking up, the sight of Kuina's white eyes being just mere centimetres from his own, was clearly noticeable without perfect vision. He remembered flying back into the pillows from the utter shock, and just lay as still as possible when Kuina's blank, open-mouthed face glided toward him so that they were just centimetres apart again. Zoro couldn't stand looking into her disturbing lifeless eyes and squeezed them shut, hoping the gruesome image would just be gone when he opened them again. And, thankfully, it was.

Zoro swallowed and covered his eyes with his hand. It was probably being stuck in a hospital for a week, or maybe it was the morphine they were giving him, hallucinations must have been a side effect. A disturbing thought hit Zoro. What if, the longer he stayed in the hospital, the longer he stayed in that bed for hours on end doing _nothing_… the more Kuina would appear less and less human?

Damn…he needed to get out of this place. Zoro looked at the wall clock which read 6:28. He cursed out loud and smacked the back of his head against the pillow. Fuck, Chopper usually came round to check on him every three hours or so unless there was an emergency. There was nothing else to do in a bed other than sleep. Just for a little, just until Chopper came, then he can prove to his stubborn friend how important it was for him to be discharged this very night.

Zoro shuffled himself further down into the bed and took one last look at the quiet, still room before closing his weak, droopy eyelids.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"_K-kuina?"_

…_.._

"_Is that really you?"_

…_.._

"_Kuina, just…just look at me…please?"_

"_Kufufufu…"_

"_What's so funny?_

…_._

"_Kuina, please…I need to ask you someth-w-what are you doing with that knife?"_

"_Fufufufufu…die…"_

"_Kuina?! N-NO STOP! STOOOOO-AUGH!"_

Zoro's entire body convulsed in a fit of shock and horror and his eyelids wrenched themselves open in order to transport his mind back into the real world, to reality, where he was safe. He took in unbelievably huge, sharp breaths and his eyes frantically dashed all over the room, taking in the shadowed furniture and black walls. He grasped at his right side and felt for any blood oozing out of the new wound, but he found no blood or a wound…it wasn't real…he hadn't been stabbed. He managed to calm down his air intake so that he just breathed rapidly and shakily through his nose.

Zoro lifted his quivering hand and rested it on his sweaty forehead. What the _fuck_ was that? He knew it was a dream, well more of a nightmare, but…what _was_ that? Kuina tried to kill him? He'd had dreams about Kuina before, as well as nightmares, even before she had started to appear as a ghost, but she'd never actually tried to _kill _him.

What the hell could this mean? She must be angry at him about…about _something_. Zoro looked down to the area where she had "stabbed" him. It was exactly the same place where one of the bullets had been removed. So that was it-she was angry about him being in the hospital, she was angry that he had been shot, angry that he was weak, angry that he had lost, angry that-

TAP!

Zoro's head shot up and he glanced at the one window in the room. Did something just knock it or was it his imagination?

TAP! TAP! TAP!

Okay, that definitely wasn't his imagination-was there a person knocking on the window? Zoro looked up at the wall clock that read 10:00. Shit…had he really slept for that long?

Zoro huffed with annoyance when the tapping on the window became louder and more frequent.

"For fuck's sake…" Zoro grumbled to himself as he slowly lifted his aching body out of the bed, taking in a sharp breath after he bent forward too much and agitated his ribs. Knowing his luck, the tapping noise was probably the cause of some tree branch caught in the wind.

Zoro lightly placed a hand against his aching side as he traipsed across the short space between the bed and the window. He fussed around with the blinds for a few seconds, cursing here and there at the unnecessary difficulty involved with simply trying to pull the cord down. Once he was finally able to lift up the white slat he was surprised to see, of all the people in the whole world, the annoying, shitty, curly-browed, idiot cook standing outside, being drenched by the heavy winter rain, staring at him, with a hand in mid-air. A moment passed by when they just stood as still as statues, staring at one another, the two of them separated by just a pane of glass. Finally Sanji pointed a shivering finger toward the bottom of the window, and Zoro, without really thinking, unlocked and lifted it up. The sound of the heavy rain was louder than Zoro expected it to be, the harsh droplets attacked and pummelled every surface like a volley of watery bullets and he received a nice draft of frigid air over his skin.

"Finally! I thought you had been moved to a different room cos you took so long!" The cook shouted over the rain.

"What the fuck do you want shit-cook?"

"What the fuck's up with you?! You got one of them swords stuck up your ass?! Wait-don't tell me that's how use your three sword s-"

"Cook I fucking swear, if you finish that goddamn sentence you'll be glad that you're so close to a hospital bed"

The cook spluttered and choked on his own loud, obnoxious laughter "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Man you're so easy to wind up heh heh heh-but, seriously though marimo let me in - I'm fucking freezing!"

Zoro growled as he stepped aside to let the wet cook in and shut the window once he climbed inside. He shook his soggy hair like a damn dog and managed to hit Zoro with a spray of wetness.

"Are you wearing a bin bag?" Zoro observed as he wiped away the droplets on his arms.

Sanji looked down at the black plastic overall that covered most of his body and shrugged.

"Well yeah, when you haven't got money or a home you kind of have to improvise. Thought that would have been obvious, even for a blockhead like you"

Zoro purposely looked the blonde up and down with mild disgust and then asked the most obvious question "So, what are you doing here?"

Sanji looked back up, "Oh, yeah h-hold on," his face seemed to strain as he started rummaging around behind his jacket. He managed to pull out something small and pushed his open hand toward Zoro's stomach.

"Took me ages to find seaweed, plus this shitty weather didn't help. I don't think they got soggy, but err I think they might be a bit cold…sorry about that," Sanji placed the three onigiri wrapped up neatly in cling film into Zoro's cupped hands.

The balls of rice emanated a strong, comforting, homely warmth that managed to creep its way up Zoro's stiff arms.

"I figured you must be desperate for some real fucking food, I hate the shit they shove down your throat in hospitals. Well, don't just stand there gawking at them marimo, eat up."

"I'm not gonna eat them with you staring at me like an idiot"

"Hahahaha, fussy fucker, I bet you just don't want me to see the look on your face when you realise I'm not such a shitty cook after all."

"Che, you'll always be a shitty cook," Zoro muttered as he turned away and hobbled back over to the bed. He stole a quick glance at the blonde who was peering out of the window attentively and fussing around with the blinds, and took the opportunity to privately unravel and gobble up the onigiri.

Oh, god they were so fucking good. The balance of saltiness and slight heat from the wasabi was too perfect for Zoro to imagine, and there was a slight hint of sweetness that enhanced all the other flavours and textures that rolled around his tongue. The rice was cooked so soft that it just seemed to melt in his mouth and induced a powerful need to eat more and more until there was nothing left.

"So how are they?" Zoro jumped slightly at the sound of the cook's annoying voice, who had chosen to take a seat next to the bed.

"They're alright I guess"

"Tch, stubborn piece of shit," Sanji mumbled into his hand before crossing his legs. The saturated bin bag had been removed, and Zoro was somehow irked by the fact that the guy was still wearing a suit. No wonder he got robbed, people would naturally assume that he had money if he traipsed around in a _suit_.

"Why are you still wearing that thing, it should be reeking of trash and sewage water, or whatever the hell you sleep in"

Sanji scoffed, "_Excuse_ ME!? Okay first of all there's no fucking way in hell I would even _consider_ sleeping in a sewer. Secondly, I love this suit okay? It's precious to me, it's the only reminder I have of what my life used to be like, no scratch that, what my life _should_ be like. And thirdly, it shouldn't smell like _anything_ thank you very much. In fact _I _don't smell like anything anymore."

"Oh yeah? How'd you manage that shit-cook? Steal someone's bath?"

"Unlike some moss-brained idiots, I have enough intelligence to figure out how to sneak into public pools undetected and take as many showers as I please"

"Man, you're so fucking prissy"

"Fuck off you lazy ass marimo, you won't be able to call me that when you're chewing on my foot"

"You wanna fucking fight shit-cook!?"

"Hah! Yeah right. Even though I wouldn't ever miss the chance to kick your head in, I'm not the kind of guy to fight cripples"

"I'm not a fucking cripple. In fact I'm getting the fuck out of this hospital tonight"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Sanji's eyes drifted down, "Your hand says otherwise…"

Zoro looked down to see one of his hands holding his aching ribs, which he quickly snatched away. What the- when did he do that?

"Y'know I just don't get what your fucking problem is marimo. I mean just two days after you got fucking _shot_ you were walking around like it was nothing and now it's been just a week and you think you can go home? Why are you so desperate?"

Zoro turned his head away like a moody teenager," You wouldn't fuck understand shit-cook."

"Try me"

Zoro snapped his head back to look daringly at the persistent blonde, "Why the fuck do you wanna know?"

Sanji shrugged, "Dunno, curious I guess? Besides you said we hardly knew each other, so it shouldn't really matter if you told me"

"That sentence doesn't sound right to me"

Sanji flew his arms up into the air, "Oh for fuck's sake marimo, the more you delay it the more I wanna know! C'mooon just tell me"

Zoro sighed tiredly and rubbed his temples. He had managed to blab his mouth off about Kuina before; regrettably he could probably do it again. And the blonde was sort of right, not knowing much about each other meant no harm would come if he were to spill stuff he wouldn't ever consider talking about with his closest friends. The cook was nothing to him, just a small speck in his life that he could just get rid of at the click of a finger…

"I have to get home, I just fucking have to. While I'm just stuck in here, I being robbed of precious hours that I'll never get back. Being confined in a bed and being told I can't do _anything_, that's the worst kind of punishment for me."

"Why?"

"Because how the fuck am I supposed to become the world's greatest swordsman by doing nothing!"

"Ohhh so that's what this is about"

Zoro ran a hand through his green hair, "I shouldn't even _be_ in this fucking hospital anyway. I know that and…so does Kuina"

"Kuina?"

"I-yeah…look this probably makes me sound fucking crazy but," _don't fucking say it_, " she…she's been…visiting me"

"What like a ghost or something?"

"Yes-YES! That's exactly what she's been doing! That day when we first met, the whole reason why I was standing in the middle of the road was because she-she was too. I don't know what the fuck she was doing there a-and she looked so _real_. And that wasn't the only time she showed up, she did it when I was in work, she did it just before I got shot…She's even visiting me in this hospital… well not exactly _visiting_ but…I dunno, the whole thing's pretty fucked up. Every time I see her she just has the same sad, disappointed face…which actually helps make sense of the whole thing…in a way"

"What does that mean?"

_Don't fucking say anything, don't get carried away and start blabbing about things that shouldn't be talked about_. "…Well she must have some reason for visiting me…and I think that reason is…that she's disappointed, she wants to warn me that every moment I don't spend trying to fulfil our goals she's just waiting, unable to do anything about it. I'm the only one who can do something…and if I don't…the promise we made is as good as broken"

"Oh shit"

"Yeah…I know"

"Holy fucking _shit_!"

"Y-yeah I _know_!"

Sanji shot up out of chair and started to pace around the bed, "I mean that's just…oh wow…_fuck_ I wanna meet this girl"

"Wait what?"

"Okay I automatically like _anyone _who can kick your ass but the fact that she's so goddam _smart_. My god, you only get to meet people like her in a whole fucking _lifetime_."

"What the fuck are you talking about you cryptic asshole, you don't even know her!"

"Wait, wait, wait you don't get it?"

"Get _what_!" Zoro shouted as he threw away the bed sheet and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Oh wow this is just amazing, now I feel fucking sorry for her, trying to convey something important to an empty headed moron like _you_ pfft must be easier trying to get blood out of a fucking stone_" _Sanji said as he marched up to Zoro and shoved an obnoxious finger in his face, which he quickly grabbed and squeezed hard enough for Sanji to flinch slightly. Zoro looked up at Sanji's cocky smirk with ferocious narrowed eyes and emitted a deadly threatening aura.

"Stop talking in fucking riddles you son of a bitch and say whatever the fuck you really want to say."

Sanji snatched away his hand and wasn't fazed at all by the subtle warning conveyed in Zoro's murderous tone of voice.

"You're pretty easy to read y'know? And after what you just told me I was able to figure it out…you feel guilty, don't you?"

"…"

"Even though you won't admit it, you think it was your fault she died that night. You think that if you had never asked to fight with real swords, if Kuina had never gone to fetch the sharpening block, if she had never fallen down those damn stairs, she would still be alive today. And you wanna know what I think? I think the only reason why you're going through so much effort to achieve her dream is because you think it will help get rid of that guilt and pain that's been haunting you all these yea-"

Zoro moved fast, too fast for Sanji to even react, when he leapt up from the bed, shoved the blonde's thin body into the wall and placed an elbow against his trachea in just a matter of seconds. Sanji immediately tried to claw at the elbow that was beginning to suffocate him slightly and coughed and spluttered like a drowning man. Zoro didn't increase or decrease the pressure he was pushing against Sanji's throat, and instead leaned in dangerously close to Sanji's pale face.

"Don't you fucking _dare_ say that again you little prick. You don't fucking know _anything_. You don't know anything about me, you don't know anything about _her_, you don't know anything about _us…_do you understand?" After Sanji made no sign of giving a response, Zoro increased the pressure on the trapped windpipe, "Well?"

The cook lowered his head back down and his fiery eyes levelled with Zoro's. A gasp of pain escaped Zoro's mouth when Sanji stamped on Zoro's foot with the sharpest point of his heel, and was easily pushed back into the bed when Sanji lightly kicked at his chest.

Sanji clutched at his throat and gasped for breath, but he was still relentless in trying to get his point across, "Oh I think I do haa…haaa… in fact I think I know more about her than you ever did"

"Shut up…" This fucking guy…he's pushing way too many boundaries.

"That's why I said she was smart, she's trying to tell you something so unbelievably important and life-changing but your just too fucking _dumb_ and egotistical and pig-headed to understand what she's _actually_ trying to say!"

Zoro swung a clumsy but heavy fist at the blonde's head, which was easily dodged and went crashing into the wall.

The blonde casually stepped backward slowly as he said "She's telling you to stop, to stop trying to get yourself killed all the damn time just for her sake!"

"Shut up!" Zoro picked up the ornamental flower vase on the table behind him and threw it, aiming again at the blonde's head. Sanji ducked down to avoid the initial crash but received a few scratches from the rogue pieces of china that flew in all directions.

"She's telling you there's no fucking point in risking your life for someone who's dead!" Sanji shouted across the room as he wiped at the blood dripping down from his cheek. A silence soon followed, one which Sanji could have easily broken with another bullshit insult but it was Zoro who was the first to break it with the simple words, "….get out…"

"…" Zoro despised the lack of response and stomped over to the window and lifted it up with a loud bang.

"Get. Out"

"…"

"Get the fuck out!" Zoro lunged forward again at the blonde who swerved to the right and jumped up and landed, perched on top of the windowsill facing Zoro.

"You can't deny the fucking tru-"

"Get out, get out, GET OUT! Get out of this room, get out of my life, get the fuck _out_! **I wish I'd never met you! You annoying, pathetic, shitty fucking hobo!"**

The loud thunder and rain in the background was an annoying reminder that all this was actual happening, the mood and thoughts in this room had changed dramatically in such a short space of time that it was hard to believe anything _had_ actually happened.

"Maybe you're right…maybe I am shitty, maybe I am just a hobo. Maybe I am all those things you said…I may be all those things…..but at least I'm not as fucking **stupid** as you!"

Zoro flew forward with no restraint but Sanji was quick to leap out of the window and disappear back into the night. Zoro slammed the window shut and kept his hands clutching at the windowsill, willing it through his angry strength to keep shut and to never open again. He leant his fiery forehead against the ice cool glass and stayed like that for a while, watching his heated breath form clouds of condensation upon the cold surface.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

What now…..what the fuck was going on now…..

….There was just the colour black, _everywhere_, as far as Zoro's eyes could see. And his eyes weren't closed, if he looked down he could see himself pretty clearly, it was like he had been dragged into some black void and he was the only thing there. A dream then…great that's just what he needed, another dream where Kuina murders him. How did he even get to sleep after that god awful argument? His mind had been racing with so many angry thoughts he didn't think he would be able to sit still let alone sleep. Maybe Chopper sedated him like he did the last time he went batshit insane and started to punch the walls out of frustration.

"Zoro" Oh god not again, he didn't want to see her again, he didn't want to see her looking so sad or creepy, he didn't want her to see _him_ looking so miserable and pathetic.

"Zoro" He turned around slowly and his voice hitched in his throat when he saw her standing a mere foot away from him, smiling warmly.

"Kuina?"

Her smile grew into a beam, "I've missed you Zoro"

Zoro couldn't help himself, as soon as he heard those words that sounded so genuine and loving, he walked closer, fell to his knees and hugged Kuina. And she didn't just disappear and vanish into thin air like a ghost, she was tangible, she was something he could hold, he could actually feel her body warmth and her breath brush past his ear, she _was _real, as real as he could ever hope for.

"I missed you to" He felt Kuina's small arms wrap around his neck and the two childhood friends and rivals held each other for a few minutes before Zoro broke off the hug, braced his hands on the black ground and knelt his head forward.

"I'm so fucking sorry Kuina…I'm so fucking weak and pathetic…I couldn't protect you…couldn't protect our oath…couldn't-"

"You always were an idiot, you know that Zoro?"

Zoro blinked dumbly and lifted his head back up to look at Kuina's calm unimpressed face "Eh?"

"Zoro, can you answer this question for me?"

"…okay…"

"You've been seeing me a lot this past month Zoro, whether as a figment of your imagination or as a ghost, that's for you to decide. But tell me what happened the first time you saw me?"

"….." First time he saw her? That was when he was almost run over by the truck…

"How about the third time? What happened then?"

"…I got shot?"

"Yes and do you want to know why?"

"…" _Please don't say it Kuina._

"Because I was there, because I called out to you"

"W-what are you trying to say Kuina?"

"I'm trying to say the same thing the blonde guy told you, whom you blatantly ignored. Zoro… if you don't let go of me and if you keep risking your life to fulfil our promise, you're going to die"

"H-how can I do that? How do you expect me to do that? I'm risking my life for _us_ for _our _promise. To be the world's greatest swordsman, I thought that was your dream…. I thought it would make you happy…"

"Zoro…don't you understand?...There's no point in trying to achieve my dream when I'm not even alive, only an idiot would do that…But the thing is…being able to see you live your own life, being able to see you make friends, to see you smile, to see you have fun and to hear you laugh, watching you achieve your _own_ dream to become the world's greatest swordsman…that's the greatest gift you could ever to give me…that's what will make me happy"

Oh…..oh….so that's what she was trying to tell him…and that's what _Sanji_ was trying to tell him. An unfamiliar tingling sensation tickled Zoro's nose and his eyes became damp with tears. Heh heh, it almost felt like he was a damn kid again. Zoro rubbed at his running nose and looked back up at Kuina's calm face. She looked almost exactly like she did the last time he saw her, she even had the same dirt marks on her trousers from their last fight…..god he felt so fucking sorry for her…she was just a kid…a kid who had so much potential and ambition to match his own….she was his friend….

…"Why did you have to die Kuina?..."

"Sometimes…life just needs to remind people how important it is…but don't feel sorry for me…I'm not really gone…not forever…as long as I'm in here," Kuina lightly placed a tiny hand on Zoro's heart, "…I'll never _truly_ be gone"

Zoro grabbed hold of the small hand squeezed it tightly. But after a few seconds Zoro's hands felt like they were gripping at nothing and he looked back up to see Kuina slowly fading into the black background.

"W-wait you're not going!"

"Sorry Zoro this is the last time you'll see me from now on...oh but one last thing…could you apologise to that blonde guy?"

"The cook? What the hell for?"

"I think you and I both know he was just trying to help. Besides, I like him, he's a good person and I think he deserves an even better friend"

"What the hell are trying to imply?"

"Heheheh ah you always were so easy to wind up….." She was fading away much too quickly for Zoro to comprehend…was this seriously the last time he'd ever see her?

"Kuina!"

"Ne Zoro..."

"What is it?"

This was the last thing Kuina would ever say to him, words she would have chosen _knowing_ this time that they would be her last.

"What is it!?"

"….._**Daisuki"**_

Zoro woke up with a slight jolt and his eyes flickered open. The pillow beneath his cheek felt damp and cold and his head felt groggier than ever. But despite that somehow his life seemed clearer to him than he could ever have imagined possible, and it felt good…damn good. Zoro peered across the room and saw the first few strips of morning light scattered across the floor. But he made no motion of trying to heave himself out of the bed in order to wander around the hospital looking for a way out. Instead he just decided to take it easy for a few hours.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Daisuki=I love you

I hope I have that right D : I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean love as in romance but more love of friends and family. I just thought it would be nice to put in there to show that Kuina really regarded Zoro as a friend.

Well this is Zoro's part of the story essentially completed (no more emo Zoro yay!) and we are gonna definitely move on to the main plot so you'll be seeing _way_ more Sanji in the next upcoming chapters.

Welp stay tuned! xxx


	7. Chapter 7

"Ah is that so Miss Camie?"

"Uh-huh it's always been mine and Hachi's dream to be marine biologists, ever since we were little! And if we raise enough money we can move to Florida where they offer intern-ships at the Mermaid marine center!"

The cute receptionist tucked a strand of kiwi coloured hair behind her ear. Her face lit up in a moment of triumph once she had announced her biggest and most important goal in life to Sanji, who was leaning across her desk to express his interest.

"Uwaah that's amazing Miss Camie! Well I wish you all the best of luck!"

"Mm thank you Sanji! Oh back to your first question, mm I don't think Zoro works on the weekend so he should be at home. He looked much less grumpier than usual when I saw him come back home from the hospital, I wonder what that was about anyway, there's been rumours that he had actually been shot! I mean can you believe that?!"

Sanji leaned back slightly and some of the confidence that he upheld in his speech when talking with a beautiful woman disappeared for a brief moment, "Eh? Err yeah I guess that does sound kind of...extreme- is the elevator working by any chance?"

"Hm? Oh yes of course, go right ahead~" Camie said politely while using her hand to gesture toward the elevator.

As Sanji began to walk backwards away from the shell marble desk, he bowed down with a hand placed over his chest and said, "Thank you very much for your time Miss Camie."

When he lifted his head back up the first thing to catch his eye was the skin coloured blur that was the receptionist's hand waving from side to side at a very intense speed. "Oh not a problem Mr. Sanji, it's my job to help anyone who visits this building. I hope you can find Mr. Zoro!"

Before Sanji could show the sweet receptionist one of his signature smiles which encapsulated pure gratitude, he accidentally bumped into someone behind him. As he spun around and muttered a quick sorry, his jaw dropped when he took in the stranger's appearance. In front of him stood a tall man with spindly arms and spindly legs, with a face plastered in makeup and was wearing the most absurd pink ballerina outfit Sanji had ever seen.

"Araa~" the strange man chimed as he leaned in closer to Sanji, "Aren't you a cutie~ I haven't seen your face around here before, are you a new caretaker?"

Sanji's nose wrinkled at the stench of the strong perfume the man was emitting and a shiver crawled up his spine when his cheeks were cupped and squeezed by a pair of large manicured hands. He shook his hands to display a signal of absolute denial and started to back away, "Eh, n-no I'm just here to visit someone!"

The man suddenly threw his arms around Sanji and squeezed tightly as he rubbed his cheek against his. "Don't kid around! Does that mean you're taken?!" He shouted in a strange voice before giving Sanji forcible kisses on the cheek.

"I-what? No!" Sanji screeched, his suave composure totally shattered thanks to the creepy man's suffocating embrace, as he tried to wrench the man's face away from his.

"Bentham! You're magazine subscription arrived this morning!" He heard Camie call from behind him.

"Oooooh good I've been waiting ages for this copy of Men's fitness" Bentham cooed as he let go of Sanji and twirled over to the reception desk. Sanji scrambled inside the elevator as soon as he was freed from the weird manhandling, tripping once or twice during his frantic escape.

Sanji repeatedly jabbed at the 12th floor button, but managed to mouth the words "thank you" to Camie who chuckled in response. When the elevator doors closed Sanji was left huffing and puffing with a slightly pink face in the small space of the elevator. Who the hell was that? Was he some kind of drag queen? One of the tenants? And why the hell did he assume he was a new caretaker?

Sanji's head snapped up to look at the set of numbers above the metal doors when he felt the elevator come to a stop. The number three was illuminated by a sickly orange light and Sanji peered out to look at whoever it was that pressed for the elevator on the third floor.

Just when he thought that he had seen his fair share of weirdness for the day, the sunny go apartments decided to surprise him yet again when he took in the appearance of one man wearing a red clown nose, clown makeup and massive clown shoes and another man who had an extraordinarily odd haircut which was shaped to look like the number three.

"Who are you kid? A new caretaker?" The clown guy asked. Why did everyone keep assuming he was a caretaker?

"N-no I'm here to see a errr...an acquaintance" Sanji answered as politely as he could without giving away how weirded out he was by the whole situation.

"Oh? And who would this acquaintance of yours be?" asked the guy with the weird "3" hairstyle.

"Errr Zoro Roronoa?" Both men looked at Sanji discerningly and then looked at each other with perplexed expressions before bursting out into roars of choked laughter.

"Bwahahahaha! You're kidding right?! An acquaintance of Zoro Roronoa!? Bwahahaha!"

Sanji narrowed his eyes and pressed the 12th floor button without even looking. Sanji clicked his tongue irritatedly and folded his arms as soon as the doors closed. What the hell was their problem? They shouldn't exactly be the ones laughing at him what with the way they were dressed. Or maybe...maybe dressing like that was considered normal in this building. Maybe he was the weird looking one. Sanji shrugged his shoulders when the elevator doors finally opened onto the 12th floor and he straightened the black cowboy hat he had perched on his head.

The unwelcome feeling of anxiety began to slowly rise within Sanji as he made his way around the indoor balcony. Damn what the hell was wrong with him? He could talk so casually with that marimo, and the conversation-well rather the insults-came so naturally to him and there was no need to put on a front when he was around him. But for some reason, on this particular occasion, it was hard trying to think of the right words to say which wouldn't cause another shit storm like last time to occur.

Sanji warily knocked on the pale wooden door and shifted the pile of papers he had carried in with him into his other arm. No doubt that stubborn asshole would slam the door shut as soon as he saw his face. Sanji certainly hadn't expected Zoro to react so over the top on that night at the hospital and all because he just told him the god damn truth.

Sanji heard some muffled noises being made behind the door and his eyes quickly fell to his shuffling feet. Okay maybe he shouldn't have been so blunt in his addressing of the subject of Zoro's dead childhood friend, but at the time it seemed like that was the only way to get through to that dull fucker. If anything, that asshole should be grateful that he even gave two shits about him.

Sanji regrettably flinched when the door in front of him flew open to reveal a neutral looking marimo wearing glasses and holding an open book in his left hand.

"Errr... hey"

"...hi?" Zoro said with utter confusion laced within his voice. Well, that kind of reaction was expected, what with the way Sanji just flew off into the night during that shitty storm without even mumbling a goodbye. It was easy to assume that Zoro probably didn't think they would see each other again in this lifetime.

And yet here Sanji was, standing right on his doorstep looking and feeling like such a damn idiot. Fuck why did he even come here today? Although... he supposed he was at least grateful that the marimo had enough decency to not slam the door in his face.

"I err...," Sanji faltered as he managed to find an interesting part of the door frame to pick at, "so how you been?"

"Good...I guess" Zoro said nonchalantly without breaking his stony eye contact with Sanji's fidgety ones.

"Good...good that's...good...err whatcha reading?"

Zoro peered down at the book within his grasp and simply shrugged, "Human anatomy volume 4"

"Oh...I err didn't know you were interested in biology...you studying for something or?"

"I'm just trying to find out the amount of ways you can render a fully grown man unconscious using only your bare hands. So far I've found 57"

"Oh...okay...that sounds...interesting I gue-"

"What do you want?"

Sanji finally looked up into Zoro's daring eyes and sighed over-dramatically, "Look marimo I've thought about what happened at the hospital and I've also thought about the things I said and I've realised maaaybe my choice of words were just a little bit spiteful, even though in my opinion you should be thanking me for what I said, and even though it pains me to say it I think maybe I could sort of, in a way...ap...ol...ogise?"

Zoro gave Sanji an emotionless stare that lasted for a good number of seconds before responding, "Ohhh right right so, you've come here today, a whole two weeks after you insulted me and acted like a complete douche bag and a shitty asshole, to give me one of the worst apologies I've ever received in my life?"

"Urrr...yeah?" Sanji said innocently.

"Tch, your shitty apology is accepted..." Zoro lifted his hand to point at the hat which purposefully obscured Sanji's eyebrow, "What the fuck is with the cowboy hat? You been rooting around dumpsters again?"

Sanji was astonished that the marimo had forgiven him so easily after making such a fuss but he was also so fucking glad he had the right mind to change the subject quickly. Sanji clicked his tongue and pulled the black cowboy hat from his head and let it hang around his neck by the chord. There was no need to hide his eyebrow in this place. "For your information, you lazy ass marimo, I got myself a job"

"You? A job? How'd you manage that one?"

"This guy who was once a customer recognized me while I was in the public pool. We got chatting, he said he needed a new chef for his hotel, I told him I was unemployed and hey presto, I am no longer a penniless hobo"

"A hotel? I thought you wanted to keep a low profile, what with you being a fugitive and all?"

Sanji made a choked sound and quickly and spun his head round to see if anyone had heard the block-head, "Would you keep your voice down?!" he whispered with emphasised hisses.

"What? No-one's gonna hear us nor are they gonna care"

"That may be so but for fuck's sake marimo don't talk so casually about it! And yes I do want to keep a low profile but I only agreed to cook food for events that are hosted in the evenings... besides I've gotta earn a living one way or another... oh wait before I forget," Sanji plucked a colourful poster from the stack he was still clutching and shoved it into Zoro's free hand.

"What the hell is this?" Zoro grunted as he looked at the poster like it was some kind of undiscovered alien artefact.

Sanji rolled his eyes, "My manager asked me to give these to any of my friends... and since I don't really have any friends right now I thought I might as well give one to you".

Zoro scoffed, "Wow I feel so privileged... wait... was this the real reason why you came here today?"

Sanji's hand quickly retreated behind his back, "Eh? Ah...ahahahaha no no of course not you good for nothing marimo that's just your under worked brain coming up with delusional ideas ahaha."

"Your apology just became 10 times more shitty-"

"WHO ARE YOOOOOUU!" Sanji barely had time to turn his head in the direction the shout had come from before a small yet powerful force collided into his side, lifted him off his feet, which caused him to lose his grip on the stack of posters, which subsequently flew up into the air in a papery firework display and soon after he landed on his back with a grunt.

He scrambled to back away from whatever had hit him and alarms bells rang in his head when he felt someone tighten their grip around both of his legs. He swiftly pulled one of his legs out from the grip and blindly kicked out, only to freeze when he felt his shoe come into contact with something soft and squidgy. Sanji opened his tightly squeezed shut eyes and peered down to look at what was underneath his shoe, which turned out to be a young boy's severely squashed face.

"...a... kid?" Sanji said dazedly as he removed his foot from the slight dent he had made in the kid's face. The kid seemed unphased by the blood that was now running from his nose and down his chin and reached over to pick up a straw hat that was sitting on the ground and placed it on his head.

"Luffy! What have I fucking told you about tackling strangers!" Zoro shouted as he stomped over. He grabbed hold of the back of the kid's flimsy red vest, lifted him away from Sanji's legs and just dangled him above the ground.

"But he looked interesting and I wanted to know who he was...", Sanji half listened to Zoro bickering with the whining kid named "Luffy" as he began to pick up the scattered posters with shaky hands. Fuck that had given him a fright. It'd been so long since he'd had a run in with any agents that he'd let his guard down. Lucky for him it was someone Zoro knew but...who knows, if it had been an agent that had tackled him then there was no way he could have gotten away...it would have meant game over for him. Sanji quickly placed the hat firmly back on his head and once he stood back up with most of the posters back in his possession he was greeted with an outstretched hand.

"I'm Luffy D Monkey, nice to meet ya!"

Sanji stared down at the benign hand and, after snapping out of his little paranoid trance, he shook the hand and introduced himself, "Urr...Sanji"

"Heeeeh~ So how come you know Zoro?" Luffy asked with brimming curiosity after Zoro finally let go of his vest and dropped him back on the floor.

"Oh I'm urr..." Sanji said as he tried to find a suitable word to call himself in relation to the marimo. The green haired man was eagerly shaking his head when Sanji looked at him for any hints but this only helped to induce a devious smirk on his face.

"I'm his new chef," Sanji said slyly.

"What?" Zoro said. The word which seemed to drop out of his mouth mirrored the sudden descent of his facial features.

"R-really?" Luffy said astonishingly.

"Mmm-hm this guy is way too incompetent and stupid to comprehend how to make meals himself, in fact without me cooking for him 3 times a day he probably would have starved to death weeks ago". Sanji looked over at the now fuming Zoro with a smug expression.

The marimo then proceeded to invade Sanji's personal bubble by walking right up to his face, "You little son-of-a-"

"WAIT!" Luffy burst out which helped to subverted both of the men's desire to kill one and other and they looked at Luffy who was now pointing a shaky finger at Sanji. "A-are you telling me you can cook?"

Sanji's eyebrow quirked up when he heard the desperation in the kid's voice but he still answered, "Sure can."

"Like you can actually cook food? D-does it taste good?"

"Damn good." Sanji said with a nod.

Luffy suddenly dropped onto his knees and clapped his hands together like he was about to pray."W-w-w-w-will you be my nakama?!" he asked.

Sanji's eyebrow quirked up once again,"Huh?"

"He wants you to be his nakama err a friend I guess" Zoro explained.

Sanji frowned. This kid just asks strangers if they wanted to be friends? Or perhaps he's just really interested in cooking? Either way Sanji's respect for Luffy was rapidly increasing; his level of self confidence and optimism was slightly eerie for a person of his age. "Sure Luffy I'll be your nakama as long as you take one of these," Sanji said as he handed a slightly crumpled poster to Luffy.

"Hm? What's this?" Luffy asked with curiosity as he peered intently at the piece of paper in much the same way as Zoro had done previously.

Sanji couldn't help but smile when he tapped at the red letters on the poster, "It's this Christmas party the hotel I work at is hosting. There's an entry fee for non-guests but there'll be a huge all you can eat buffet and plenty of entertainment."

Sanji's eyebrow couldn't have risen any further up his forehead when he watched Luffy's entire body turn into a shaking mess, while he made weird choking noises. The poor poster, which was in the grip of frantically wobbling hands, looked ready to be torn in half but Luffy's expression was unreadable behind his lowered straw-hat.

"Y-you okay kid?" Sanji asked quizzically. He flinched slightly when Luffy suddenly surged into the air and raised his clenched fists to the ceiling.

"UOOHHHH! BUFFET!" Luffy shouted in a similar fashion to a battle cry before running around the entire apartment floor, banging on every single closed door and yelling at the top of his lungs, "EVERYONE GET OUT HERE! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"

"W-what did I say?" Sanji asked in awe as he turned back to Zoro.

Zoro rubbed his temples and sighed irritatedly, "One thing you should know about Luffy. Never _ever_ mention the words 'buffet' and 'all-you-can-eat' in the same sentence."

Sanji blinked slowly and looked back at Luffy who was still running around the balcony, "Oh".

"DIDN'T ANYONE HEAR ME?! IT'S A BUFFET!"

"Oi, oi, Luffy what're you going on about?" asked a youngish looking teenager who had emerged from his apartment. The first things Sanji was quick to notice about the guy was his peculiar long nose and his paint-stained dungarees.

"Oi Luffy, what the hell are you doing? This is the fourth time you've woken me up today." said yet another male teenager who emerged from his apartment looking much more annoyed than the other guy. The black-haired man looked more Zoro's age and his attire consisted of an orange cowboy hat and a missing shirt.

"Sanji!" Sanji turned around as soon as he recognized the familiar squeaky voice and smiled when he saw Chopper come running towards him.

"Hey Chop-oof!" Sanji's voice left him when Chopper rammed into his stomach and squeezed him with a hug.

"Sanji how've you been? Are you eating properly? You do look quite pale." Chopper said as he looked up at Sanji with big, brown, worried eyes.

"Ha-ha I'm fine Chopper, honestly. I've got enough money to feed me until my stomach's bursting" Sanji reassured before ruffling the young doctor's curly hair.

"I-if you say so." Chopper said with a pout before pulling himself away from Sanji's midsection..

"Who's this Chopper?" The long-nosed guy asked as he walked up to the three of them.

Sanji smiled politely, "Oh hi I'm Sanji Bl-"

"Usopp I can't believe you haven't met Sanji yet! Me and Zoro both know him, ne?" Chopper chirped and looked up at Zoro expectantly.

Zoro simply yawned and looked off to the side. "Well I wouldn't mind _not_ knowing him to be honest."

Sanji considered kicking the swordsman in the head, but decided against it when he spotted yet another friendly hand being offered for him to shake, which he gladly took without hesitation this time around.

"Nice to meet ya, I'm Usopp but all my friends just call me, 'The bravest warrior in Grandline, the great and mighty Usopp-kun'!" Usopp struck an almighty and proud pose which made Chopper make a sound which could only express his pure admiration for Usopp's 'title'.

"Liar."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Usopp screeched into Zoro's face for breaking his pretty obvious facade.

"Ehhhhh it was a lie?" Chopper said in disappointment.

"Usopp guess what!? Sanji's a cook!" Luffy said as he latched an arm around Usopp's shoulders.

"Eh? Really?"

"Eh? Sanji you never told me you could cook!" both Usopp and Chopper asked almost simultaneously.

"W-well if I have the right ingredients I can whip up pretty much anything you want." Sanji said as he started to back away slightly from the crowding youngsters.

He wasn't used to this much attention all at once and the bright and adoring eyes which were all locked onto him put him slightly on edge. He looked to the side at Zoro for some help but to no avail, as the idiot marimo was more interested in the grains of wood on his apartment door than his current predicament.

"You hear that Usopp?! This guy's the best cook ever! Shishishi I'm so glad you became my nakama! Ne can you cook stuff like pizza, burgers, BBQ? Ooh how about pasta and sushi?" Luffy asked as he grabbed Sanji's arm in a playful manner.

"Ne ne Sanji can you do Indian food? H-how about Chinese food or maybe Caribbean?" Usopp asked as he smacked Sanji's shoulder lightheartedly.

"You guys stop asking him so many questions! He can't even afford to feed himself!" Chopper squeaked as he pushed back both Usopp and Luffy whose mouths were starting to water.

"Eh? He can't feed himself? But he's a cook! Ne Sanji why can't you feed yourself when you're a cook?!" Luffy demanded to Sanji whose eyes were starting to look very shifty.

"Oi Luffy don't ask personal questions like that to strangers." Zoro said nonchalantly.

"But he's not a stranger he's my new nakama!" Luffy whined.

"Yo everyone stop crowding round the poor guy." Finally the crowd around Sanji dispersed when the shirtless guy spoke up from behind them, pushed his way forward and tipped his hat in greeting, "Hey Sanji right? I'm Ace, Luffy's older brother."

Sanji looked at both Ace and Luffy and put his hand behind his neck. "Ah nice to meet you...I urr I never would have guessed you two were related ha-ha."

"Yep you're definitely not the first person to say that heh-heh, but what people don't know is that I'm the more chilled out guy who can just sit down and have a few beers with some friends and hang out. Whereas Luffy is...well he's Luffy ha-ha." Ace said just as Luffy began to climb up onto his brother's back, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and holding the poster in front of Ace's nose.

"ACE! Look look! Sanji just invited us to this event thing at a hotel and there's gonna be an all-you-can-eat buffet!"

Ace snatched the poster out of Luffy's hands to look at it properly and shoved Luffy off his back, "Eh? A-are you serious? YOSHA! Everyone get your coats! Uooooah we haven't been to a buffet in ages dammit!"

Sanji couldn't help but smile when he watched Ace and Luffy dance together while chanting "Buffet, buffet!". Yep there was no denying it, they were _definitely _brothers.

"Luffy! What the hell are shouting about! You made me lose count of my berri stash!" Sanji's head couldn't have moved faster as soon as he heard the female voice behind him and his heart practically melted upon seeing the beautiful redhead who was tapping her foot impatiently on the ground with her hands on her hips.

Luffy snatched the now crumpled poster from Ace's hands and ran over to the redhead to show off the piece of paper ecstatically. "Oi Nami look what Sanji gave me! Ne can we go? Can we?"

Nami swiped the poster, popped on some reading glasses and scanned over the printed words, "What's this? The Galley-La hotel...christmas evening...live swing band performing christmas songs...new singer...all you can eat buffet...eh?! 7 berri entry fee? Isn't that a bit steep? Oh and who's Sanji?"

"Oh he's my new nakam-"

"Ah the heavens have truly bestowed a beautiful gift upon this world! I feel so unworthy in your presence my goddess. Miss Nami was it? Please allow me to introduce myself, I am your knight, your slave, your chevalier, I am whatever you shall wish me to be, my princess, my name is Sanji, Sanji Black." Sanji chimed in a sweet serenade while kneeling on the floor with an outstretched hand.

"Ah I see..." Nami said as she offered her hand for Sanji to kiss, which he gladly did but was disappointed that the beautiful redhead was still reading the poster and wouldn't spare him a glance. "It says here that you are the singer in the band."

"Ah yes that's true, it would be a great honor if you were to come and watch me sing, I will be sure to express my undying love for you in every single lyric!"

"Oi I didn't know you could sing shit-cook."

Sanji tore his eyes away from his princess to send a sour look at the green-headed idiot who was obviously trying to embarrass him in front of a beautiful lady. Sanji's heart melted a second time though when a delicate hand cupped his chin and turned his head back towards the beautiful red-head once more.

"I would love to hear you sing Sanji, but 7 berri is a little too much for me~" Nami said delightfully with a smile sweeter than honey..

"Of course madam I couldn't bear to think of you paying for the entry fee! I will ask the manager if you can get in for free!"

"Uwah! Thank you!" Nami said as she leaned down to give the lovesick Sanji a hug.

"Yohohoho what's all this talk about singing?" Sanji looked up to see an extremely tall African American man wearing a slightly worn out suit and a small top hat placed upon his perfectly round, enormous afro.

"Brook! You're just in time!" Luffy shouted with excitement and hauled a whining Sanji away from Nami and placed him in front of the man named Brook."Ne Sanji this is Brook, he's a musician, Brook this is Sanji, he's a cook but he can also sing swing music according to this." Luffy said while looking at the poster in confusion.

"Heeeh so you're going to be singing tonight Sanji-san? Yohoho swing music has always been a favourite of mine, how well do you sing?" Brook asked politely.

Sanji strained his neck in order to engage in the conversation properly with Brook,"W-well I err I guess I'm just average, cooking has always been my passion and well singing is just an easy way to get some extra money".

"But you'll be singing Christmas songs! It doesn't matter how good a singer you are when you're singing Christmas songs!" Luffy said happily.

"Yohoho that's true Luffy-san. I always look forward to playing songs around this time of year, ah excuse me do you mind if I smoke?" Brook asked as he plucked a marlboro cigarette from a fresh looking packet.

"No not at...all...urr I err...well..." Sanji stammered and then gulped when he looked down at the delicious looking sticks that were stacked so neat and snug inside the inculpable packaging.

"Hm? Is something the matter Sanji-san?"

"I...err..." Sanji said as he loosened his tie.

"Idiot if you want a cigarette just ask/" Zoro mumbled from behind.

Sanji frantically looked between Zoro and Brook and started to sweat, "Wha-no I wasn't- I wasn't gonna-I-no!"

"Yohohoho please help yourself" Brook said and then offered the open packet to Sanji.

Sanji looked at the delectable cigarettes once again and swallowed thickly, "I...no, no I better not I've err got a bad financial situation right now and well I've been going cold turkey for a least two months now...it's probably best I keep it that way."

"Ah I see well to be honest I was actually thinking of quitting myself but well it's hard trying to deny life's little luxuries." Brook said before lighting up.

"I know right?" Sanji said disappointingly and looked to the side. He felt an arm hook over his shoulders and guide him back over to the others.

"Yosha! Sanji is now an official member of the strawhat crew!" Luffy shouted as he smacked Sanji's back lightly. "Ah wait you still haven't met Robin though!"

"She's still on her business trip to Tokyo! But she should be back real soon so you can meet her then!" Chopper piped up.

"Ah I very much look forward to it~" Sanji said with a goofy looking expression plastered onto his blushing face.

"Ne Sanji, where is this hotel?" Luffy asked.

"Oh it's just a few blocks from here actually."

"Really? You guys what are we waiting for let's go there now!" Luffy announced and starting sprinting round the balcony only to have the back of his shirt grabbed by Nami, which effectively stopped him in his tracks.

"Baka! It's starts in like 2 hours."

"Ehhhhhh?!" Luffy whined as he easily slipped out of Nami's grip.

"Ne Luffy let's go give posters to everyone in the apartment," Chopper suggested when he ran up to Luffy.

"Uwahhh good idea Chopper! Everyone let's go! Captain's orders!" Luffy announced fiercely and grabbed the pile of posters out of Sanji's hands and sprinted round the balcony toward the elevator. He was soon followed by Usopp, Chopper, Ace and even Brook who chased after him with smiles plastered on their faces.

"Count me out I'm going to get changed." Nami said before disappearing back into her apartment.

"Kora! Don't squeeze into the elevator all at once!" Ace screeched from inside the cramped elevator. As soon as the doors slid shut, both Zoro and Sanji were left in complete and utter silence and in a moment of confoundment, they both turned their heads to look each other in the eye.

"...so...you can actually _sing_?"

Sanji sighed and rolled his eyes.

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Sanji cleared his throat and hummed a sequence of high notes that transcended through to low notes. He held his right hand in front of his eyes and was satisfied with how steadily it hovered in the air. He knew he would be at least a little nervous about singing in front of such a large audience but he was glad his body wasn't showing any obvious signs of it.

Sanji peeked through a small slit between the red velvet curtains which separated the entertainment hall and the backstage area. It was strange to see so many filled seats in the dimly lit hall; he was more used to seeing just a few young couples and solo businessmen dotted around. The sheer noise of about a hundred people talking at once was slightly daunting and was enough to make his palms accumulate sweat.

Sanji backed away from the curtains and combed a hand through his blonde bangs. It was fine, he told himself, he could do this. There's no doubt the manager will triple his normal pay thanks to this turn out, which meant he could look forward to buying a swarthy amount of new hats if tonight's performance went well. Sanji moved out of the way when the stony looking musicians barged past him and filed out onto the stage.

Sanji slightly loosened his tie when his neck suddenly felt extremely constricted. He squeezed his left hand tightly into a fist as he passed through the curtains and made his way to the front of the stage. After the hundreds of voices had begun to die down and dissipated into a tense silence, Sanji shakily cleared his throat and tapped the microphone a couple of times before speaking into it.

"Good evening ladies and gentleman my name is Sanji and this is the swing jazz orchestra. We'll be providing you with your entertainment for tonight so please relax and feel free to visit the buffet as many times as you like. On behalf of the staff who work here at the Galley-la hotel, we hope you have a wonderful evening and will consider coming to our other events which will be taking place throughout the new year. For more information please visit our website at .com."

Sanji couldn't help but cringe when he relayed the convoluted speech the manager had ordered him to say before every performance. He could see the manager out of the corner of his eye, nodding along to Sanji's droning, looking as proud as a cat with a dead frog at its feet.

"Alright, enough all that boring stuff, who wants to hear some Christmas songs?"

The crowd erupted into thankful cheers and encouraging applause which relieved the pressure from Sanji immensely, even the sight of the manager doing a double take helped keep his anxiety at bay. Sanji looked over his shoulder and gave a discreet thumbs up signal to the drummer who, along with all the other musicians, was coated in an unnerving blanket of shadow.

_"Have yourself a merry little christmas, let your heart be light."_

Once the first two lines of the song travelled to everyone's eardrums, a warm round of a controlled applause was produced and the entire audience visibly relaxed into their seats. Sanji was pleasantly surprised to find that his voice hadn't betrayed him; it travelled across the entire hall and upheld the smooth and deep tones needed for the song. He grabbed the mic stand with one hand and filled his pocket with the other as he sang along with the festive tempo that the double bass and piano provided.

_ "From now on, our troubles will be out of sight."_

His eyes, as per usual, found themselves wandering around the room and scanned over different audience members, trying to find who stood out more than the rest. But on this particular evening his eyes just didn't know where to look because there were just too many people who stood out; in fact it was hard to find anyone who looked normal.

_ "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yule-tide gay"_

Sanji managed to locate both the weird clown guy and the even weirder number three guy he had bumped into earlier this evening. Even strange individuals like those two both had enough friends to fill up four tables. A man wearing heart-shaped glasses and sporting a very odd looking goatee kept catching Sanji's eye as he seemed to be incapable of not moon-walking his way to and from the buffet table.

_"From now __on, our troubles will be miles away"_

Sanji's eyes kept travelling across the room and kept landing on different individuals. There was an old woman drinking by herself who was wearing some rather revealing items of clothing for her age and it didn't take long to spot the twirling okama he had also met earlier that day.

_ "Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more"_

His eyes finally stayed put when he found the table where the marimo and his friends were seated at. His voice strained slightly when he tried to keep himself from laughing when he watched what the rowdy group was up to. Luffy couldn't seem to stop himself from snatching food from everyone's plates which obviously pissed off Zoro because the pulsating vein on his forehead and the reddish/purple tone of his face was even visible from where Sanji was standing.

He watched as Chopper placed two chopsticks in his mouth and nose and stood up on his seat to perform a strange dance which was well received by Usopp, Brook, Luffy and well strangely the marimo too, who was smacking the table in a fit of laughter. Ace however seemed to be pretty out of it, Sanji was pretty sure that falling asleep into a plate of food wasn't exactly the normal way to neither eat nor sleep. The beautiful Nami looked absolutely flawless in her red maxi dress and Sanji wanted nothing more than to make his way down to her and compliment her charmingly, however he just settled on watching her pickpocket a hopeless wannabe gentleman who was flirting with her pathetically.

_ "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know"_

Sanji knew he needed to tear his eyes away from the happy table but his need to remember old, nostalgic memories stopped him. The safe comforting atmosphere, the warmth from the orange flickering candle flames, the non-threatening faces, the Christmas themed food and music, everything in the hall served as a reminder of a different time in Sanji's life...a _better _time.

_ "Where the treetops glisten, and children listen, to hear sleigh bells in the snow"_

There was of course a time where Sanji didn't need to suspect everyone he met of actually being a member of that damn group. A time when there was no need for him to watch his back whenever he walked down a street or to avoid any kinds of police authority in all areas of the city. There was a time he wasn't the cause of people's lives being ruined.

_ "May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white"_

The month of December only meant one thing for Sanji when he was younger, and that was more business for the restaurant. There was no time for Sanji to go carol singing or to look in toy shop windows or even to open up a new window on an advent calendar every morning. All he got was longer working hours and twice as many potatoes to peel and the only present he could look forward to finding under the Christmas tree was a brand new knife set, although for him that was probably worth more than a hundred toys. The only time when Sanji could finally settle down and enjoy the best time of the year was, well, the night before Christmas.

_"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know"_

On Christmas Eve, the chefs were allowed to gather in Sanji and Zeff's small living room and stay up until midnight watching cooking specials Sanji had taped onto a cassette over the years. Although Zeff was allowed to sit in the biggest and most comfortable chair, it was Sanji who had the privilege of sitting right next to the crackling fireplace. A bowl of warm eggnog was shared out between everyone and Sanji couldn't help himself from dunking amoretti biscuits into the thick and creamy drink. Once the mulled wine was brought out, everyone, even Zeff, got a bit tipsy but this only meant that the hot-headed chefs cracked more jokes and sang songs heartily, instead of picking fights with each other.

Sanji never was able to stay up late enough to drag himself to bed, he just opted to curl up into a ball next to the fire and listen to everyone around him talk about the dishes they'll be serving the next day and just drifted off to sleep. But he's always woke up the next morning in his bed with a warm glass of eggnog and amoretti biscuits waiting for him on his bedside table.

_"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, wit__h every card I write"_

Sanji wondered how the old man was doing. Was he settling in alright with his new job at the diner? The only observations Sanji could make was by looking through the diner's window from across the street. The old man just seemed to be performing repetitive, menial tasks each and every day, it looked like he was being fucking tortured in Sanji's eyes. But...at least it was better than him being dead...shit geezer should learn to appreciate things.

_"May your days be merry and bright"_

And at least_ he_ wasn't going to be spending his Christmas in an underground subway station. Sure Sanji had enough money to buy new clothes and food, but that didn't mean he could actually move into an apartment or anything. His number one rule was to never stay in one place for too long. Maybe, after everything had gone quiet, he could walk down the streets at midnight and look into the windows of random apartments and houses and compare their Christmas decorations and catch some of the heat that wafted out of the windows from the crackling fireplaces. Yeah that didn't seem so bad. He of all people should know that it's the little things that count.

_"And may all your Christmases, may all your Christmases, may all your Christmases be white"_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sanji looked at the floor and bit the inside of his cheek when Zoro's group of friends started to clap loudly when he made his way over to the table after his performance had finished and the other members of the audience were starting to finish their drinks and pop their coats on ready to leave. Sanji felt awkward at the amount of congratulations being offered to him and he approached the table and felt uneasy about the amount of eyes that were on him. Of course the marimo just kept silent and sat stiffly in his chair with his arms crossed in front of him, looking unamused.

"Sanji! You looked so cool up there!" Chopper said with sparkles in his eyes.

"Sanji you were amazing! You should definitely come sing at our parties!" Usopp chipped in.

"Right right! Sanji can come to all our parties and sing b-but you have to come cook too! This is the best meat I've had in my life! I can't believe you actually cooked all the food for the buffet!? Are you some kind of super-chef?!"

A wave of approving comments washed over Sanji and the only way he could react was by smiling politely and murmuring, "Y-you think so?"

"I really must commend you for your singing Sanji-san; it was a real privilege to listen to. Perhaps you could consider singing as a profession?" said Brook.

"Ha-ha no no like I said before cooking is my real passion. Besides I thought I sounded a little flat tonight." Sanji said while rubbing his neck sheepishly.

"Nonsense Sanji-kun~ You have an incredible singing voice, but I also have to say that this dessert is out of this world! I almost feel bad for not paying the entrance fee." Nami said while finishing off the last of her orange blossom cheesecake and wiping her mouth delicately with a serviette. Everyone else at the table however seemed to drop their mouths all at once and stared at Nami with bemused expressions.

"Uwah~ Thank you so much Nami-swan! I am not worthy of such kind words," Sanji said as he knelt down next to Nami and held his hands over his heart.

"Idiot cook, can't you tell she's lying? It's impossible for that witch to regret not paying for something."

"Huh?!" Sanji grunted as he marched over to the shitty marimo and grinded his forehead against his. "How fucking dare you speak about Nami-san that way you fucking marimo-head! It's obvious you're just jealous!"

"Hah?! Jealous of what you ero-curlybrow-shit-cook!" Zoro retorted and pushed back against Sanji's forehead while baring his teeth.

"Bwahahaha you guys are so funny haha! Look Zoro you've gone all purple!" Luffy said while laughing hysterically and pointed at Zoro's face obnoxiously.

"Shut the hell up Luffy!" Zoro blared as he pulled away from his head butting duel just to grab the back of Luffy's neck and smashed his face into a dirty plate.

"Oi, oi, calm down you brats don't ruin a good evening -Sanji! Seriously man thanks for inviting us here we had a fucking awesome time didn't we guys?" Ace said while shaking Sanji's hand forcibly.

"Yeah!" The entire table shouted at once, apart from Zoro of course.

Sanji looked to the side in embarrassment and scratched his cheek. "Ah...d-don't sweat it-"

"Oi Sanji! I need you to clear some of these tables for me! Hop to it!" his manager shouted from across the hall before disappearing up the stairs.

Sanji sighed tiredly, "Alright alright...urr sorry you guys-"

"Say no more bro! We'll be out of your hair straight away, come on Luffy it's time to shoot off." Ace said as he patted Luffy's straw-hat.

"Ehhhhh?! N-no way I wanna stay longer please?" Luffy begged.

"Come on Luffy we don't wanna cause any trouble for Sanji do we?" said Usopp.

"I guess not...come back and visit us anytime Sanji!"

"Yeah please visit us Sanji!" Chopper said enthusiastically and bounced up and down on the spot.

"Heh heh we'll see" Sanji said affably.

One by one, each of Zoro's friends said their goodbyes to Sanji and filed out of the hall as one chatty and lively group, leaving Sanji to start piling the dirty dishes on top of one and other and to blow each candle out. Sanji paused in his cleaning however and looked back up when he heard a cough which was obviously meant for capturing his attention.

"What do you want?" Sanji asked bluntly as soon as he saw Zoro standing in front of him with a plain expression.

"Does this hotel have a rooftop?"

"Hah?" Sanji said in bemusement.

"This hotel. Does it have a rooftop that people can access?" Zoro asked again while pointing upward.

"Urrrr yeah...why the fuck do you wanna know?"

Zoro's gold earrings glinted in the remaining light when he tilted his head and grinned cockily. "Fancy continuing our little duel?"

Sanji couldn't help but return the cocky grin and levelled his eyes with Zoro's when he said, "I thought you'd never ask."

"Meet me on the rooftop at 9:30, got it?" Zoro asked just as Sanji had stacked as many plates as he could on top of his arms and even his head and began walking away towards the kitchen.

"Yeah yeah I got it, I'll be there!"

"You better not chicken out cook!" he heard Zoro call out from behind him.

"As if, you shitty swordsman."

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Sanji spat out some more rain water that had managed to spray into his mouth and looked up at the dark sky. He was at the right time at the right place, standing on the roof of the hotel at 9:30. Unfortunately for him though, he had no ownership of any kind of watch and therefore came to the rooftop early, and therefore had to wait in the battering rain for about 10 minutes. A flash of lightning to his right made his eyes flicker over the city and soon after a loud clap of thunder could be heard in the distance. How peculiar, Sanji thought as he wrung out his drenched sleeves, there was a thunderstorm much like this one on that night two weeks ago. Probably just a coincidence.

"Oi". Sanji just managed to pick up the muffled greeting and he tilted his head slightly to look at the ominous looking Zoro.

A deadly and powerful aura surrounded the man plastered in a menacing shadow and he leered at Sanji with such narrowed eyes they appeared like glowing white slits. Sanji's head tilted to the side when he caught sight of the two unsheathed swords in the grip of the marimo's hands.

"Heeh~ so you're actually gonna fight me with those things?! Y'know, I think it would be way more interesting if I could take on your three sword style! Or am I still not considered a 'worthy opponent'!" Sanji managed to shout over the heavy rain.

Zoro stood still for a few seconds before wordlessly unsheathing the third and final sword, held it up to his mouth and sunk his teeth into the white hilt. A droplet of rain dripped down the bridge of Sanji's nose and clung onto the tip while Sanji stared at Zoro in bewilderment. The silence between the two was broken shortly after when Sanji burst out laughing and held onto his knees for support.

"Ah-ha! Ahahahahahaha! That's it!? That's your oh so famous three sword style? You've gotta be kidding me?! Hahahahaha!" Sanji managed to choke out between childish giggles. Sanji averted his eyes away from the ridiculous image of Zoro holding a sword in his mouth and looked at the wet ground for fear of passing out from too much laughter.

"Oi-shit cook, you better fucking take this seriously or you're gonna wind up dead," Zoro spoke lowly, however his words were slightly muffled thanks to the presence of the sword in his mouth.

Sanji managed to control his laughter to just short snickers and looked back up at Zoro with watery eyes. Man, what was with this guy? How the hell was he supposed to take this seriously? Sanji managed to relax his face muscles that were starting to ache from so much smiling and straightened his back to look Zoro in the eye. Sanji's eyes slightly widened when he realized that there was something different, there was something new and alien found within those brown orbs, almost like a flicker from a new fire that had been ignited deep within the swordsman.

Sanji tapped the ground a few times with his heels to check if they still retained their hardness after not using them in combat for so long. Shit he probably should have warmed up a little before the marimo showed up.

"Ready when you are shit-cook," Zoro mumbled with a threatening tone, which was only emphasised more by the sound of another thunderclap in the distance.

"Cocky bastard," Sanji said under his breath as he bent down slightly and dug his heels into the ground. Without another minutes thought or hesitation Sanji launched himself through the winter rain toward the swordsman. Sanji's head perked up when he saw Zoro galloping towards him as well at the same lightning speed and needed to react quicker than he had anticipated when a sword came slicing through the rain aimed at his chest. Sanji slammed his shoe against the flat side of the blade and held his ground with his other leg which was planted into the wet concrete. Zoro however took no time in attacking with his second blade which Sanji just managed to avoid by rolling out to the side and then sprung back onto his feet.

After flicking away the soggy blonde locks out of his eyes, Sanji started to back away slightly when he saw Zoro charging at him with two swords crossed in front of him. The back of Sanji's heel bumped into something and he stole a quick glance at the well placed air conditioning unit behind him. Sanji waited for the muscles in Zoro's upper arms to twitch slightly which would indicate precisely when he was about to attack and almost as soon as he spotted it he spun around on his heels, planted his feet against the air conditioning unit and pushed up and away, neatly back flipping over the swinging blades and the swordsman's green head. Just as Sanji's feet hit the ground he heard the sound of metal being sliced which was soon followed by a loud hissing noise. Great so now he had to pay for the god damn unit to be replaced.

Sanji quickly retaliated by launching a kick aimed at the small of the swordsman's back. But the other man caught the blow with the very sword that Sanji was laughing at not too long ago. The strength behind that sword matched the force of Sanji's kick and held him in place long enough for Zoro to take advantage of Sanji's exposed abdomen by ramming another katana's hilt into it.

Sanji jerked back and his feet sloshed through the rising water level as he staggered back a few feet and coughed a few times. Shit he shouldn't underestimate the power those hilts could pack, never mind the actual razor sharp blade attached to it. And it turns out that third sword wasn't just for show, the guy's deadly skills in swordsmanship was equally balanced for each and every sword. Damn was he seriously gonna have to admit to himself that he probably shouldn't have underestimated Zoro's bizarre fighting style.

Sanji felt like a damn matador when he saw Zoro charging toward him with both swords held out in front of him, an attack which was only intended to thoroughly skewer the opponent like a kebab. Sanji dodged the stabbing swords by bending backwards, planted his hands onto the ground and lifted his legs into a handstand position, ready to retaliate. However, Sanji was prompted to literally throw himself out of the way of the irksome third katana, which came slicing down upon him like a scythe.

A loud splash was produced when Sanji landed clumsily on his side in the inch deep pool of water. God dammit, he needed to stop defending himself all the time and actually start to get some hits in if there was ever gonna be chance of him winning this fight. Once Sanji looked back up he was mesmerised somehow by the full spherical shapes being created by raindrops bouncing off Zoro's katanas which were being spun around so quickly that they just appeared as a silver blur. Sanji got up and decided to face the danger head on by sprinting straight into the deadly whirlwind and then, using his cat-like nimbleness and reflexes, he slipped between the two sweeping swords in a well timed cartwheel and whipped his leg up to try and catch the swordsman across the chin. Sanji clicked his tongue when he felt the absence of a shattering bone underneath his foot and swiftly somersaulted away.

Fuck, so not only was the guy on his toes with his attacks but he also had a not so shabby prowess for dodging. Sanji narrowed his eyes when he saw Zoro come tearing through the blinding rain towards him once again, with his two swords crossed in front of him. Through a last minute decision Sanji decided to block the crossed swords with a raised foot and used up all his remaining strength to push against his relentless opponent. Sanji clenched his teeth and a weak growl was produced from his throat when Zoro lifted his head up to look Sanji straight in the eye and showed off a cocky smirk. What the fuck was he smiling about? This fight wasn't over yet. Sanji's eyes widened slightly and he peered down at his other leg to watch it being scraped backwards along the ground. Sanji looked back up just in time to watch Zoro's confident smirk turn into a bloodthirsty grin when he also looked down at the predicament Sanji's left leg was in.

In too short a time for Sanji to even react, Zoro drove both swords upward and forced Sanji's entire body into the air. Sanji squeezed his eyes shut once his head struck the ground, however the blow was cushioned by the watery pillow beneath him. A loud noise rang eerily close to his ears and Sanji's eyes flew open when he felt the sting of finely sharpened blades against his throat. His body immediately froze upon seeing the overlapping swords buried into the ground beside his neck and the cross shape which had been formed mere millimetres above his adam's apple. The water surrounding him entered his ears and the sound of the thunder and rain was blocked out leaving only the sound of his heavy panting and rapid heartbeat to echo around his brain. This was it; the fight was officially over, if Sanji were to so much as sneeze his throat would be no doubt sliced neatly across the middle. Sanji looked up at Zoro who towered over him and was still keeping a firm grip on the two hilts. His expression was...unreadable. His relaxed features told Sanji that Zoro was waiting for something else to happen however there was something in his eyes which told Sanji that he desperately wanted to say something.

Sanji managed to ease his panting down to slow deep breaths and then asked a question he didn't think he would need to ask, "Are you satisfied now?"

Zoro's eyebrows raised and he stared intently at Sanji. It would appear that in this particular round, Sanji had assumed the role of the cocky bastard. Well, there were of course a few excuses Sanji could at least come up with to condone his attitude. During their first fight it became clear to Sanji that he barely needed to put any effort into his attacks in order to overpower the swordsman and so he only assumed that it would end in the same way this time around...he obviously thought wrong. Though the presence of the three swords greatly put Zoro at an advantage, there was something else that had helped him gain the upper hand throughout the entire brawl. It felt as though a weight had been lifted away from the swordsman's burdened shoulders and had allowed him to unlock a new power which had already been dwelling within him.

Sanji's eyebrows furrowed when he heard Zoro laugh heartily and throw back his head, "Ha-ha satisfied? I guess you could call it that." Zoro lifted the swords out the concrete and slid all three back into their sheaths before turning away.

"Oi marimo," Sanji said, without moving away from the floor and then pointed toward the opposite direction the shit-head was heading off to, "Exit's that way."

Sanji smirked to himself when he heard an irritated grunt come from the marimo, wordlessly lifted himself up into a sitting position and watched as Zoro's legs walked straight past him. Sanji looked back up at the black sky and sighed. Damn, he was hoping this little ordeal could have taken longer, on nights like these it was best to stay up all night and wait it out until morning when the weather had cleared. Finding a place to sleep that had cover from the rain almost always proved to be a nightmare.

"Hey," Zoro said behind him.

Sanji's head perked up and he turned slightly to look back at the calm looking marimo, "What?"

Zoro rubbed at the back of his neck, "Urr well Luffy kind of told me to ask you to come to our place on Tuesday for a welcome home party for Robin...it's up to you if wanna bother coming or not."

"Tuesday...isn't that the 24th?" Sanji asked.

"Urrr yeah I guess it is...sooo you could probably call it a Christmas party as well but I'm not really into those kinds of things."

"Okay."

"Huh?"

"Okay I'll be there," Sanji said with a straight face.

"Oh...okay urr I'll make sure Luffy knows," Zoro said before marching off.

"Marimo?"

"What now?"

Sanji pointed towards the exit with his eyes closed, "Exit's that way."

"Shut the fuck up eyebrows."

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OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH MYYYYYY FUCKING GOOOOOD I cannot believe how utterly pathetic I feel for making you guys wait for this chapter its pretty fucking ridiculous. Anyways I just want to apologise and say that the reason I put this off for so long was probably because of my exams. I needed to just fill my head with revision and just not think of anything else except "exams, revision,study,exams,revision,study". The annoying thing is is that my exams finished in june so i really have no proper excuse for not getting this chapter out earlier. Maybe having finished my exams my mind just turned into jelly and forbid me from actually doing anything productive XD But yeah I just wanna say I'm very very sorry. I won't take another break like this again because i seriously want to finish this story even if it's the last thing i do XD

On a side note i wanna recommend you guys listen to Michael Buble's version of "White Christmas" while reading the scene where Sanji is singing the same song. I seriously think that if Sanji had an American accent he would sound like Michael Buble and if you read the fic while the song is playing it really does sound like Sanji is singing to you and makes it just a little bit more emotional ;n; anyway definitely stay tuned cause there is lots more to come let me tell you XD

Thankyou very much to turtlefriedrice who beta'd this for me thankyou thankyou thankyou!


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